Written in Blood
by Kietah-chan
Summary: Just when their lives seemed to have gone back to normal, all hell breaks loose when some unwanted visitors make an appearance causing pain, sorrow and misery. What will Ed and Winry do now? (EdxWinry)
1. Bitter Hallucination

Written in Blood  
By: K-c 

A/N: This is my first FMA fic . . .so . . .yea. I'm so used to writing KH fics that this one is definitely gonna be different. I hope that it's not too bad . . .my friend Ari helped me with ideas . . .so . . .please don't hurt me. If this seems a little strange, sorry. There's only so much you can do with FMA.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT A YAOI FIC, SO DON'T EVEN TRY TO MAKE IT INTO ONE! ARRRGGGGHH!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in FMA. Ed is so . . .hot . . .though . . .

Ch. 1: Bitter Hallucination

She shifted nervously in the position she was standing in by the train door that was about to close. The loud whistle kept blowing, but she felt so numb; she felt like she couldn't even hear it. She had to move . . .but she couldn't take a single step. The matter of losing something close to her was drawing near and she couldn't face the facts. 'It will only be for a little while . . .' she thought to herself sadly, in an attempt to cheer herself up. 'I'll be back soon enough . . .'

"You better get inside," the young teen standing in front of her with golden hair and eyes warned the still stalling girl. An attendant was slowly coming around from door to door, closing the people inside of it and she still wouldn't move. Somebody inside of the train was staring at the scene outside with great curiosity, silently urging the girl onboard. The girl's hands clutched the tiny bag with all of her tools inside of it tightly, trying to relieve some of the emotions bubbling inside of her. She bit her lower lip slightly and continued to stare fixedly at the cement ground, holding back her tears.

She looked up at her companion and gave him her most assuring smile she could muster in times like these. Her blue eyes sparkled from the lights and her unnoticeable tears, which only made the boy standing before her, give a small smile in return. She wanted to give him something . . .something that would leave an impression on him while she was gone . . .but the nearing attendant shooed her through the door and up the stairs into the train. She squeezed past a person by a window to peek through and saw him standing there, staring back up at her with those captivating eyes of his. She shoved open the stubborn window and stuck her head through it just as the train started to pull away from the station.

"I'll be back soon!" she called out the window at his figure that was slowly moving further and further away from her as the train moved on. A sudden look a panic seized the teen's face as he started to charge after the train, his red coat billowing out behind him. In a matter of seconds he was practically running beside her, keeping up with the gradually speeding train. He pushed past at least thirty people, not stopping to apologize.

"WINRY, WAIT! I GOTTA TELL YOU SOMETHING!" he hollered up at the girl, panting heavily, but still in speed with the train. The train was gathering speed and the end of the station was nearing, but he still wouldn't stop running. The blonde girl watched as he slowly lost speed and eventually stopped running as the train sped past him. He doubled over and rested his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. When he looked up, the train had rounded a corner and was out of his sight. There were a large number of people staring at him like he was crazy, but he felt completely alone.

He straightened up and stared off at the sunset, frowning at it, as if it had done something wrong. He turned around and started to head back to where he was to begin with and where a large suit of armor was standing, waiting for his return. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and continued to walk past the armor, cursing under his breath.

"C'mon, Al," he ordered the suit of armor softly, still walking away. The armor quickly hurried to catch up to his companion and they were soon strolling side-by-side. The two of them walked out of the station with continuous stares, but neither of them caring. When they were out in the fresh air, the teen with golden hair looked up at the sky that was slowly fading with light and shined with bright pink and purple and smiled. It was a weary smile, but yet, still a slight sign of happiness.

_'It'll only be for a little while, afterall . . .'_

Ed's POV:

"None whatsoever."

"Did you check everywhere?"

"Sir, we've checked the whole area and we are certain of no survivors. There just wasn't a single chance of one."

I looked up from the pavement that I had been staring at intently for the past ten minutes while walking back from picking up some supplies in a nearby town. I averted my attention to a group of police officers standing around a large taped-off section that I hadn't noticed before. They were all staring at something in a ditch, shaking their heads sadly at whatever it could be. My curiosity got the better of me and I sneaked over to an area where no officers were standing and peeked into the huge ditch. The sight immediately made my jaw drop.

Down in a shallow river was a jumbled up heap of metal that somewhat resembled a train. It was twisted in every way possible and steam and smoke rose up from the pile, fogging the air around it. Officers were standing around below it and going in and out of it, pulling random bodies from within. The sight horrified me and I grimaced as I saw the contorted and bloody carcasses being dragged out from inside. My eyes drifted over the scene with my mind almost completely numb.

That's when I noticed it.

On the side of the train that was facing me was a faded and scratched out number that I could still barely read. The black numbers stared up at me, revealing the truth for all to see. I blinked once in an attempt to maybe somehow change the numbers around on the train and then I blinked again. They were still there; boring into my mind. The breath in my chest caught and I coughed and sputtered for a second, retaining my consciousness. The world around me seemed to disappear and I was all alone. No matter how hard I tried to see something else except for those numbers, I couldn't. It was just a void of darkness that I couldn't bring myself out of.

_No survivors . . ._

I don't know when I started running to be exact, but I wasn't aware of the change. I was sprinting as fast as I could down the road, not being able to see where I was going at all. The officer's words echoed through my hollow mind and grew to an extremely loud point, where I threw myself on the ground. I stared at the warm pavement in disbelief and denial. How could this have happened . . .? HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED? I pounded my metal fist onto the hard pavement with a loud clang. Why did this happen? Why did this have to happen to her? I shouldn't have let her leave like that . . . I should've gone with her . . . so we could die . . .

No. I'm just imagining this. This can't be real . . . this can't be happening. It all seems too horrible . . .nobody like her can die . . .nobody . . .

"Winry . . ." I whispered softly down at the road. I didn't expect for her to answer, but yet I still pictured her coming up behind me and making some comment about slamming such a good piece of auto-mail into pavement. I almost smirked at the thought of her yelling at me and throwing her wrench at my forehead like always . . .like always . . .

I grudgingly stood to my feet, glad to see that nobody else was around me, and blinked at the sunset. My mind was racing with thoughts, and I couldn't settle on one alone. I tried to block out everything and just walk back to where Al was . . .and calmly tell him . . .and not break down . . .I _tried_ to . . . but I couldn't get the image of her smiling and waving at me from the train out of my mind. Everytime I closed my eyes, I saw her face and heard her voice. I couldn't get her out of my head . . .how can she be gone . . .just like that?

I smoothed my gloved hands over my sweaty face and took a deep breath. A swift breeze swept down upon me and blew my hair off of my face and cooled me off immediately. I didn't smile at the breeze like I always did do in the past . . .I stared up at the sky with not a single trace of emotion on my face.

It's just not fair . . .who decides these things? Who makes these decisions about who dies and who survives? Who has the right to kill anybody they please? _WHO WOULD KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE WITHOUT A SINGLE REGRET?_It's not God . . .He never helped me . . .He never gave me any miracles and blessings . . . and even if it _is_ Him, why did

He do this? Where's the reason behind it? Where's the motive? Why do I have to be cursed like this? It's bad enough about Al and . . .mom . . .but it has to get worse, doesn't it? It just only gets worse from here . . .

1 Week Later

"In honour of those who died in the tragic accident on the 24th of August, we place these plaques . . ." the spokesmen went on and on. I blocked out almost all of his words and stood in the back of the crowd with Al beside me, staring only at the little stone marked: "Winry Rockbell". It wasn't exactly like a funeral because nobody was really dressed up and not many people showed up. I felt like I couldn't blink or move an inch . . .my eyes were glued to the stone . . .

I found out sometime that week that after the train had crashed, there was a fire that started somewhere in the engine and burnt the whole thing down . . .including the bodies. The bodies that were recovered, though, were so charred and distorted that they were unable to identify. So we weren't really burying the bodies . . .there weren't any to bury. Still, staring at the "tombstone" of Winry . . .it caused a sharp pain in my chest that hurt everytime I took a breath. When I had told Al the news about what had happened, he was devastated, which was what I had expected. He had always liked her when we were kids, and I bet he still did at this age. He took the news hard while I managed to keep a straight face and not shed a single tear . . .it's so hard being like this sometimes, but somebody has to be the strong one . . .

A drop of water fell onto my shoulder and I looked up to see what it was. Above me, I saw dark gray clouds gathering in the atmosphere and lightning illuminating the insides of them occasionally. Another raindrop fell on my nose and then four more. Soon, the rain was coming down like buckets and the people around me cleared away to go seek shelter. Al and I remained standing where we were, still staring at the piece of stone sticking up from the grass and was slowly becoming drenched. The rain dripped all over my face and down my neck, bringing a shiver up my spine, but I didn't move. I _couldn't_ move. We stood without saying a word for a bit, the sound of the pounding rain on the pavement behind us accompanying our silence.

"Brother . . .why does it have to be like this?" Al asked me quietly, his voice pitched with despair. I didn't look over at him, but I knew his eyes were now on me. I opened my mouth to speak and answer his question but then closed it. What _could_ I say to him? I didn't even know the answer myself . . .I shook a wet strand of hair out of my eyes and slowly walked over to the stone, suddenly regaining the ability to move my legs again. Once I was in reach of it, I placed my hand on the soaking wet surface, rubbing my thumb over and over it, feeling the gritty stone snatch on my glove. I knelt down in front of the stone until I was face-to-face with it and moved my hand from the top of it to the letters engraved in the stone. I traced the letters with my forefinger slowly and carefully, not a single thought running through my head.

"I don't know, Al . . .I really don't know . . ." I whispered more to myself than the armour behind me, stopping my tracing when I reached the end of her name. I straightened back up from my position and turned back around to face my brother, not looking him in the eyes. I couldn't bear to let him see my face . . .I walked past him, not turning around to motion for him to follow me. I didn't care if he followed me or not . . .I didn't care . . .

"Maybe we could bring her back . . .by Alchemy . . ." I heard him call back to me softly. I stopped walking and clenched my fists at my sides. I spun around to face him, the anger and frustration that I had kept bottled inside of me being released. I glared at him in all of my fury.

"Don't you get it? We can't bring her back—there's no body left!" I shouted furiously at him, not caring if he got hurt by my words or not. As much as I wanted to somehow get her back, I didn't want to go through the process again . . .

"She's dead and there's nothing we can do about it! She's gone, you get it? GONE!" I hollered at the top of my lungs and glared at him with all my might at my only brother. I didn't meant to shout at him . . .I was just so frustrated . . .I was so furious . . .

"Brother . . ." Al started quietly when I fell down to the soaking ground on my hands and knees. I stared at the muddy grass and let my emotions run out of me. The tears spilled out of my eyes without control and I shook involuntarily. My own words cut into me like knives . . .I was hurt by what I said . . .but yet, I said it anyway . . .

_She's gone . . ._

2 YEARS LATER

I sat up in my bed, covered in a cold sweat once again, like I had been doing for the past two years. I looked down at my metallic arm andtrailed my fingers along the broken surface that I had been tearing at absentmindedly. I ran my fingers through my long blonde hair that I had taken out from its braid for the night and swung my legs around to the side of the bed, resting my elbows on my knees.

It was another dream . . .another nightmare . . .another hallucination . . .like always. As the years went on, the madness and the reality of the situation sank into my mind and consumed me with these nightmares every night. They seemed so real and each time I awoke afterwards, I believed that they were true. They started off with Winry and I being together . . .just enjoying each other's company like old times . . .but they always end the same way. I see her smile and then the whole place heats up and black smoke blocks her from my view and I lose my breath. When the smoke clears, she's gone. And I'm alone.

I stood up from my bed and threw on my red cloak that was hanging on my bedpost, stepped around the things scattered aimlessly throughout the floor, and made my way to the door. I slipped on my boots by the door, opened it and stepped into the hallway. I went down the hall to the stairs and slowly stepped down the steps one-by-one. When I reached the bottom, I flung open the door to the outside and immediately felt the chilling autumn air blow across my face and lift up my hair that was still down and lying on my back. I walked resolutely towards the place that I went to every night whenever I had those dreams, and before I knew it, I was there.

I stood outside of the cemetery gate for the briefest moment, and then pushed open the creaking metal gate with some force. The dead leaves lying about crackled and crunched underneath my boots and seemed to echo hauntingly in the emptiness surrounding me. I had been there so many times; I didn't even have to think about where I was going . . .my feet just knew where to go. They carried me to the stone still sticking up from the ground, now slightly weathered with age and grass growing up around it. It looked forlorn and lost in the darkness and the meager moonlight coming from the crescent moon above. A lone cloud passed over the moon, and the stone and everything else were thrown into darkness momentarily. I closed my eyes, still trying to erase the memory of her from my mind. When I opened my eyes again, I saw somebody standing on the other side of the cemetery. I didn't pay much notice to it and started to walk away, thinking it was just my imagination.

My curiosity got the better of me, like it always did, and I glanced back up to where I saw the figure. I squinted in the darkness to try to make out any details about who it could be, but it was useless. It was too dark to figure out who it was. It was probably just some mourner coming late at night like me and had nothing to do with me. Still, a nagging feeling kept digging into my back that told me continuously to turn back around. I pushed it all aside and headed back to the house.

Winry's POV:

He had told me that . . .everybody did . . .so . . .what am I seeing? Is this my imagination?

FLASHBACK!

_"Excuse me, sir . . ." I called over to the man out on his porch reading the daily paper. He looked up at me; his face weathered with age and a long white beard covered his face. "May I ask you a question?" I inquired to him, standing before him. The old man put down his paper and nodded his head slowly. _

_"Have you heard anything about Edward Elric?" I asked him quietly, the anxiety building up inside of me. The man scratched his head thoughtfully for a moment, gazing up at the ceiling of his porch. I waited patiently for his response, even though I couldn't take it anymore. _

_"Elric . . .Elric . . ." he muttered under his breath, as if searching through his telephone book of names he had come across in his life. "Nope. Haven't heard of him in years," he finished, looking back at me. I gave a heavy sigh and averted my eyes to the pavement underneath me. _

_"Sorry, miss . . .he hasn't been seen for the longest time. Around here, we believe he's dead . . .a lot of people think that," he told me quietly, picking the discarded newspaper off of the wooden porch floor as if signaling the end of our conversation. I glanced up as he said these last words. _

_"So you're not certain he's dead? He still could be alive?" I asked frantically to the elderly man, trying to squeeze all of the answers out of him. Hope and excitement rose up in my chest as I stared up at him desperately. _

_"Well, it's not certain, but it's likely he's dead . . ." I didn't listen to another word as I took off in a run down the street in the direction of my hometown. Everyone's going to be shocked to see me here . . .especially Ed. I know he's alive . . .he has to be! He could be alive . . ._

END OF FLASHBACK!

It can't be true . . .sure, there was some meager hope of him being alive . . .but nobody has seen him in years . . .why would he be here tonight?

His gaze from staring at something on the ground switched to my direction. From the distance I was from him, I could see his beautiful eyes locked on me. I was taken back from this sudden attention and almost ran away, but yet I was so captivated by this illusion, I couldn't move a muscle. Then, he turned and walked away. He walked back to a house in the distance without another glance over at me. I watched him leave; wanting so badly to follow my lost friend and companion . . .but my legs wouldn't move an inch.

A cool autumn breeze blew through the now empty cemetery and I shivered against it, hugging my bare shoulders tightly and regretting about wearing my usual skirt this night. When I looked back up to where I had seen him walking, he was gone. Panic seized me and I started to worry about where he could've gone, but the sight of a back door to the house swinging shut in the distance caught my attention and I relaxed. My muscles suddenly regained their control and I took off in a run towards the house. The dead and dry leaves underneath me crunched and crackled, echoing through the space of darkness and silence.

I stood before the door that was now swinging in the breeze, holding my breath. The hesitation I was having towards this house only grew even more when I looked up at the dark windows and broken shutters. I slowly pushed open the door, however, and latched it behind me to make sure it wouldn't blow around anymore. The room I was in now was a kitchen in complete darkness. As I squinted around in the dark, I saw that everything was a mess and looked as if it hadn't been touched in months. I stepped around some broken glasses and plates and made my way to the stairs in the middle of the house.

I rested my hand on the dusty, wooden railing for a moment, listening for any sounds up there. When I saw a tiny sliver of light coming from a room off to the left, I climbed the creaking steps one-by-one until I reached the top. I turned to face the lighted room and walked over to it. The door was partly open and I peeked through the crack of it to see him sitting on his bed, a small lamp lit beside him. He was staring out of a window beside him, his back to me. I took a deep breath and pushed open the door gently. He immediately looked in my direction.

"W-What?" he called out, his golden eyes growing wide in surprise. I stood in his room, looking at him. My heart was pounding like crazy and my palms sweat horribly, but I managed to maintain a straight face. It's really him . . .he's really here . . .

"Ed . . .it's been so long . . ." I whispered almost inaudibly to him, not taking my eyes off of him. He switched from looking shocked and surprised to furious in a matter of seconds. He looked away from me and back to the window.

"Not again . . ." he mumbled under his breath and sighed in a defeated sort of way. I stared at his back, wanting to know why he said that. Why won't he look at me?

"So . . .after two years, you can't even look at me?" I asked him, my voice raising. The disappointment of the whole situation frustrated me so much, I started to feel tears rise in my eyes. I took a step towards him, my body shaking with foreboding sobs.

"Is that it, then? We've been apart for two years and you can't even say anymore than 'Not again'? Dammit! What kind of monster are you? Am I so insignificant that you can just live two years away from me and not even think about me? I thought you were dead! I was so afraid when I found out! And now I come here, back to you, after years of separation and you can't even look me in the eyes!" I screamed at him, my voice rising with every sentence I said. The tears streamed out of my eyes as I panted heavily in his room, staring at his back. "YOU'RE SICKENING!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs in a final attempt for him to look at me and grabbed a glass on the desk beside me and threw it on the floor between us. The glass shattered the silence and the shards lay there, glinted in the lamplight.

A long moment of silence passed between the two of us until he slowly turned around to face me. His golden eyes were cold and unfeeling and I couldn't read his expression to find out what he was thinking.

"No . . .you're dead . . ." he whispered over at me, his face still unreadable. My mind froze at these words and my breath caught in my chest. The accident . . .everyone must think that nobody survived . . .which means . . .they all think I'm dead . . .even Ed thinks I'm dead . . .just like I thought he was dead . . .he thinks that about me, too . . .

"_You_ left _me_ . . .and you come here every night . . .trying to make me apologize for everything I didn't do . . ." Ed spoke quietly, now looking me directly in the eyes. I got what I wanted: I wanted him to look at me . . .but not in the way he was . . .his eyes were accusing me of something I didn't even know about. What did he mean by 'coming here every night'? Who does he think I am?

"Ed . . .what—"

"No. I won't listen to you anymore. You're just another dream . . .another hallucination . . .I know you're not really here . . .I figured that out after about the 100th time you came . . ." he told me matter-of-factly, as if I needed an explanation. I _did_ need one, though . . .he thought I was a ghost . . .an illusion . . .he must imagine seeing me every night. I opened my mouth to speak again, but he only stood up from his bed and walked quickly over to me, glaring at me furiously.

"So what do you want? What do you want from me? You took everything—what more could you want?" he demanded from me, shouting into my face. I backed up against the closed door, staring at him, thoroughly confused and slightly frightened. What is he talking about? How can I convince him that it's really me? What do I need to do?

"It's your fault! It's all your fault! If you hadn't left, nothing would've happened! You ruined my life! You ruined everything! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!" he hollered at me, giving me the hardest glare I have ever seen him give. The tears welled back up in my eyes again and I started to shake from fear and my sobs. _What did I do?_

"Ed, please don't—"

"NO! YOU'RE DEAD AND YOU'RE NEVER COMING BACK!"

"Just please listen!"

"And Al . . .IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU LEAVING ME, HE WOULD STILL BE HERE!" he screamed at the top of his lungs at me, his fists clenched to his sides and his face red from yelling. I took a cautious step towards him, reaching my hand out to touch his shoulder.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" He hollered and swung his left arm towards me, his fist contacted my cheek and I was flung to the floor. I hit the hard ground with a small cry and lay curled in a ball for a few seconds, my right cheek throbbing with pain. Salty tears ran out of my eyes as I clutched onto my cheek. He's different . . .what happened to him? The Edward Elric I once knew would never hit me . . .

"Winry . . .?" he whispered quietly from above me, his voice soft and shaking. I looked up at him to see his eyes wide in shock and disbelief. He stared down at me with that same expression, and then looked at his hands. Before I could say anything, he flung open the bedroom door and ran out without another word. I stood up from where I was lying and tore out of the room as well, trying to catch up to him. My cheek still hurt like hell, but Ed was more important than this stupid little pain. I know he didn't mean to hurt me, but at least he knows that it's really me and not just an illusion.

I heard a slam of metal below me as I ran down the stairs and I immediately headed in the direction of the back door. I had guessed right and I caught a fleeting glimpse of red whip around the corner of the door.

"Ed, WAIT!" I called out to his already gone form and ran to the door that was now closed. The latch was locked and I prayed that it wasn't sealed by Alchemy as I tried to handle. The door stuck for a moment, but then after shoving it several times, it budged and I flung it open. A strong gust of wind blew through my long blonde hair and I shivered like crazy from the chill, but I kept running towards a figure standing in the cemetery. When I was standing right behind him, trying to catch my breath, he knelt down while facing something. I walked up beside him and saw what he was staring at.

It was a tombstone, but more like a simple and weathered rock sticking up from the grass. On the surface of the stone were the words: Winry Rockbell. I gasped silently and took a step backwards from the horrifying sight, placing my hands over my mouth in silent shock. Ed didn't move from where he was crouched at, but traced the letters of my name with his finger. I watched him quietly, not questioning him of his actions, but just observing.

He straightened up from kneeling and looked down at it, his expression once again unreadable. "You're really here, aren't you?" he asked me quietly, but didn't look at me. I took a step towards him again, but stopped myself before going further, afraid that he was going to hit me. He must have noticed my apprehension because he added the next sentence: "It's all right . . .I didn't mean to hurt you . . ."

I walked to right beside him and wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my face into the soft cloth of his coat. He didn't hug me back, which was what I had expected . . .he obviously thinks that he's too old to hug me anymore . . .My hand that was draped around his neck fiddled absent-mindedly with his long, golden hair that wasn't up in it's usual braid . I was glad that he didn't cut his hair . . .I loved it like the way it was . . .

I pulled away from him and tried to look him in the eyes, but he was still staring down at the stone; unemotional. I couldn't read his eyes, but I really didn't want to know what he was thinking about. Did he truly believe that I was right here beside him yet? Did he still doubt my existence?

"Ed . . ." I whispered quietly, clinging onto his metallic arm suddenly. An odd feel was to the arm and I grabbed it away from him. He jerked in his position as I held his arm underneath my nose. I pulled up the sleeve of his jacket and saw a nightmare. So many parts were missing from his arm and whole scraps of metal had been ripped off of it, leaving deep scars in the auto-mail. I ran my finger over the arm and cut it on a sharp piece sticking up. I gasped and looked up at him.

"What did you do?" I asked him incredulously, pointing at his arm. Ed blinked down at me for a second, his face ghostly white. He looked me in the eyes and laughed slightly in a nervous way. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly with his other hand and grinned at me.

"Uhh . . .hehehe . . .oh _that_? Well . . .let's see . . .hehe . . ." he stammered uncertainly, still laughing nervously to me, obviously trying to come up with an excuse off of the top of his head. I glared at him, but then smiled in a strained way.

"Ok then . . .COME WITH ME!" I ordered him, pulling on his arm and dragging him towards where my old house was. Ed struggled for a bit, trying to release his arm, but, finding it was useless, went along with it and allowed me to drag him.

"You know, I could just walk!" he yelled at me after about five minutes of having his arm pulled on. I looked around behind me at him and smirked evilly.

"Well, of course you could, but where's the fun in that?" I giggled at him, making it sound like it was an obvious fact. Ed scowled at me and started to struggle again. I pulled on his arm harder and he ended up falling to the ground. I spun around furiously to see him lying on the dirt with swirley eyes.

"GET UP, YOU IDIOT!" I yelled at him, looming over him. He leapt to his feet and faced me, holding one fist out to me as if he was going to fight with me.

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT, MACHINE FREAK!" he hollered at me, baring his teeth furiously.

"WELL YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STRUGGLED, ALCHEMY FREAK!" I screamed back at him, holding my fist out to him in return. We glared at each other with sparks flying from each other's eyes until two shoes came flying from nowhere and clocked us both in the heads, knocking us to the ground.

"IT'S BOTH OF YOUR FAULTS! NOW SHUT UP, YOU TWO! IT'S FOUR IN THE MORNING! GO TO BED, LOVEBIRDS!" An old lady hollered from her house across the street that we were walking on. Ed and I jumped to our feet and faced the old lady, glares and shoe imprints on our faces.

"WE'RE NOT 'LOVEBIRDS'!" We both screamed up at the lady and she closed her window with a slam. Ed and I looked over at each other, amazement of our stereo shouting on his face. I felt my face burn bright red and he started to walk past me on the way to my house, his face blooming pink as well. I hurried to catch up to him, where we walked side-by-side the rest of the way.

A/N: THERE YA GO! Yea . . .you can definitely tell that this is an angst fic, eh? So . . .lemme know what y'all thought about my first chappie of my very first FMA fic, kk? If it seemed a little strange and if you have any questions, they will most likely be answered in chappie two. So . . .I hope you enjoyed it! Please review (and be nice!)

BE NICE, PLEASE!

K-c


	2. Silence to Love, Silence to Hate

Written in Blood  
By: K-c 

A/N: So . . .here's chappie 2. I'm glad the first one didn't suck royally. I was kinda nervous about putting it up online in the first place! Well, i'm glad you guys could bear with me. This is, after all, my first FMA fic. Well, here ya go!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in FMA . . .if I DID, however, Ed would wear a pink dress, Al would be a butler, and Mustang would be a chef . . .Ah, imagination . . .

Ch.2: Silence to Love, Silence to Hate 

Winry's POV:

"What's wrong?"

I looked up from staring at the sidewalk I was standing on, at Ed who was staring at me curiously, his gold eyes reflecting the moonlight. He was standing right beside me, and yet we were so far away from each other. No matter how many times I told myself that this wasn't a dream, I still expected to wake up any minute. What are the chances of finding each other like this, anyway? It's so impossible to be true. Two years . . .is a long time . . .too long . . .a gap of emptiness to forget everything what happened between the two of us. I felt like we were finally gaining a relationship maybe more than friendship those two years ago and then it all fell apart. Now I feel like we're starting all over again and meeting each other for the first time without any memories to reflect back on. It's almost like all of our memories were erased from our minds and we're left to get to know each other again. Even though he made it obvious that he had been thinking about me a lot, what was I to him? An image? A figment of his imagination? Nothing real, nothing concrete, nothing to hold him and tell him everything's all right. Where was I when he needed me?

I nodded my head slightly, not really remembering what he had asked me in the first place. The thoughts running through my head seemed to muddle my surroundings and I kept getting lost. Ed gave me a look of suspicion and disbelief, his golden eyes seeing right through my lies, but turned to face the house again and stared up at the dark windows. I gazed at his face as he studied every detail and I waited for him to put the puzzle pieces together. I held my breath in advance.

"Where's Grandmother Pinako?" he asked the question I knew was going to roll off of his tongue any minute. My eyes immediately welled with tears as the few moments of silence that we shared followed his inquiry. Now knowing that this was what had been going through my mind he tried to look me in the eyes again. I turned away from him, desperate to hide my tears from him. It was useless, however, as they began to stream down my face.

"I heard from someone . . .last year . . . that she died . . ." I mumbled and held baited breath for his reaction. It wasn't what I had expected it to be, which was fury and anguish, but it was more of an unemotional reaction. I turned back to face him and saw that his eyes were averted to the ground and his face unreadable which seemed to be his new favourite expression. He did not say a word, did not shed a tear, did not clench his fists like he always did when he got angry. He just stared at the ground in deep thought. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, by, of course, his blank expression, but I had a good feeling that it was of remorse. He won't show me his emotions, he thinks he's too old to let go in front of me . . .like I was some kind of person that he felt like he always had to give the impression of being stone-cold and unfeeling.

"Ed . . .?" I began but was interrupted by him looking me back in the eyes with a gaze that stopped my train of thought. I shifted my eyes to the ground as well and held my hands close to my heart absentmindedly.

"So you haven't been back here in two years?" he asked me quietly, now looking back to the house that loomed over us in the darkness, giving off an ominous appearance. I nodded my head even though he wasn't looking in my direction, but I just found it hard to speak. Ed took a couple steps towards the house and stopped in front of the door. I remained where I was, the feeling in my legs lost.

"Well, we have nowhere else to go, really, so let's stay here for a while, okay?" he suggested in a kind tone which took me by surprise slightly. _He said "we" and "let's" . . .staying with him . . .both of us in the same house . . .what?_ I shivered in the cold wind and held my shoulders tightly. My childhood friend . . .the one who I thought was dead . . .and the one that I haven't seen for two whole years . . .is offering to stay in the same house as me. Is it possible? Did Edward Elric actually mature? I stared up at him in a daze, the thoughts running through my head as he looked back at me.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that? You really look stupid standing there . . ." he informed me, his face glowing with panic and nervousness. I snapped out of my daze and shook my head with a smile. _Ed mature? What was I thinking?_

I walked up beside him as he glared down at the door, his expression immediately flashing from immature Ed to "Mr. State Alchemist" in the blink of an eye. He turned the knob on the door and it rattled—locked. After staring down the lock, he pulled up his red sleeve and ripped off a loose piece of metal (much to my objection) and laid it down on the porch. He then clapped his gloved hands over the object and pressed them around the scrap as a bright blue light shot up from the ground. I watched in awe, though I have seen him conduct alchemy many times before, but I haven't seen it in such a long time that the light almost blinded me. I looked away and when I glanced back, the light was gone and Ed was shoving a metal key into the lock.

"This should be right . . ." he muttered to himself as he fumbled the key around in the lock, listening hard for a sound of it unlocking. Finally, after a few tense moments, a loud click sounded and he sighed with relief. He pushed open the door and walked inside of the dark room. I quickly followed him; desperately trying to get away from the chilling wind that kept whipping around me.

Even after one year of loneliness, the house looked exactly the same. Grandmother Pinako looked like she had never left at all and everything was completely normal. I almost imagined seeing her poke her head from behind the doorway, ready to reprimand Ed about his hair or something. But—no, nobody came, and nobody spoke. A heavy and dead silence greeted us as we stood in the living room, gazing around. I stood still, afraid to move in the pitch-black darkness and then the bright lights came on. I blinked like crazy, trying to get the spots out of my eyes and turned to see Ed standing by the light switch, staring at it in amazement.

"They still work? Talk about convenient . . ." he mumbled in numbed shock. It was strange that the electricity would still be on, but I wasn't complaining. I really didn't want to spend however long we were going to be stay in here in the dark. _Lighting candles would be beautiful . . .but—no! That's too creepy with Ed here! What am I thinking?_

I shook my head again, trying to rid myself of my insane thoughts and gave all of my attention to the blonde in front of me. I walked over to him, grabbed his non-metallic arm and pulled him towards the couch. Ed resisted, which I had expected him to do, but gave in once again and let me fling him down on the couch. He sprawled out on it, immediately making himself at home and I sat down beside him. I took his auto-mail arm into my lap and rolled up his sleeve to look at it more closely. By the way he was letting me hold it; he seemed really tense so I shook his arm a bit. He loosened.

"You totally destroyed this thing . . ." I muttered under my breath sadly, staring down at the broken and abused arm melancholically. I put so much work into this auto-mail . . .and it only gets ruined in a matter of seconds. What made him do this? I try so hard to make each auto-mail more and more efficient and I really thought that this would be the greatest one I ever made and would last the longest. Each one I make is so important to me, especially the ones I make for Ed, and it breaks my heart every time he comes back to me with it in his other hand. But no matter, I still fix them anyway . . .

"I thought I would never see you again so I figured that it was useless keeping it perfect if it only reminded me of you every time I looked at it . . ." he told me quietly, noticing my depressed face. When I looked back up at him, our faces were three inches away from each other because he had been leaning over me, watching what I was doing. His face suddenly bloomed bright red and his eyes grew wide in embarrassment. He immediately moved as far away from me as his arm would allow and fixed his gaze on the ceiling as if deeply immersed in the way the white paint looked.

"I mean . . .I just gave up hope, that's all . . ." he added quickly, trying to make his previous sentence not sound so weird. I smiled lightly at the way he was acting and stood to my feet, resting his arm back on the couch. He snatched it to him again and examined it thoroughly even though I didn't do anything to it yet. I was to distracted by his messed up hair to work on his arm right now. I went around to the back of the couch and stood behind him. He was too immersed in his arm to turn around and look at me, but I didn't really need him to.

I lightly touched his soft, golden hair with my fingers and ran them down through it. Ed stopped examining his arm and became rigid. I pulled my fingers through the rest of his hair and started again at the top. His shoulder relaxed and he rested his back up against the couch, obviously enjoying this. After playing with his hair for a minute or two, I pulled out a black hair-tie from my skirt pocket and began to braid his hair like he always did. I used to always have to do this when we were younger, but as he got older, he grew more independent and attempted to braid it himself rather sloppily. I twisted the silky hair into a loose braid and wrapped the tie around the bottom of it. When I was finished, Ed still didn't move. I peeked over his shoulder and saw that his eyes were closed. I smiled, even though I was kind of freaked out that I had put him to sleep just by playing with his hair. _He looked so peaceful when he slept . . .it was the only time I ever saw him relaxed around me . . .why could he be this way more often and talk to me . . .like old times . . .?_

I walked back around the front of the couch and knelt down in front of him on the floor. I watched him sleep and noticed a loose strand of his golden hair that was tickling his nose and making it twitch. I giggled softly as his noise twitched around again, trying to free itself from the hair. I released him of his sleepy burden gently. When I was taking my hand back, though, it accidentally grazed his cheek lightly . . .subtle . . .but just enough to make him open his eyes. He looked down at me with half-lidded eyes for a moment and then sat up suddenly.

"What! I'm still here! It wasn't a dream?" He asked nobody in particular but more to himself than me, glancing around the room frantically. He stopped looking and reached a hand behind his head to touch his newly done braid. That was when he fixed his eyes back on me.

"That still works?" he asked me, referring to the trick of putting him to sleep by playing with his hair. His cheeks rushed slightly with pink as he said this and he immediately looked in the other direction once again. I smiled and sat down beside him again. I inched closer to him, but he only moved farther away from me. I kept moving closer and closer, and he kept moving farther and farther until we were at the end of the couch. Now knowing that he had no escape from talking to me, he looked wearily back at me, his eyes begging for mercy of my "dreaded talks".

"Ed . . .you said something about Al being gone when we were at your house . . .where is he? What happened? Tell me everything, Ed, and don't ignore me!" I added quickly when I saw him starting to look away. He glanced back at me and smiled in a goofy way, then switched back to his "serious mode". He averted his gaze to the wooden floor underneath us and rested his elbows on his knees . . .his usual position from what I can remember. I knew this was going to be a tough subject to get out of him, but I wanted to know. Something important has happened . . .something I don't know about . . .

"Al is . . .gone . . ." Ed whispered softly to the floor, looking at his hands. I knew this already, but I also knew that this was only the beginning of his explanation of everything so I waited patiently for more. His voice was so quiet and gentle . . .and he sounded to be on the verge of tears, but he would never cry . . .not in front of me . . .Saying that somebody was "gone" didn't necessarily mean they left . . .in Al's case, "gone" could mean many things . . .

"Envy and Lust . . .they broke his seal when you were gone . . .they did it right in front of my eyes . . .I tried to help him . . .but . . .I couldn't . . .I'm such a coward . . ." he whispered, his voice trailing in and out of hearing. At the last words, he clenched his fists tightly and closed his eyes, squeezing them shut. I wanted to say something to him about not being a coward . . .but my mouth was so dry . . .I could hardly breathe . . .Al's gone . . .the one thing both Ed and I had been hoping wouldn't ever happen, happened and now it's over. His only brother . . .my best friend . . .gone forever. It hit me like a truck and I found there to be no air around me . . .just . . .nothing. Why did this happen? It's so hard on him . . .I know it is . . .even though he's trying not to show it, his grief and anguish is obvious . . .

"All that . . .after all that we've done . . .I let him die . . .I let him die in the hands of the homunculi!" he cried out in sudden fury, shaking with anger, but still holding in his tears that were begging to come out. I felt my eyes fill with tears as he said all of this, but continued to stare at him, wanting to know more. I felt so helpless . . .here I was, sitting beside my best friend who has gone through hell and back, lost his only brother, was thought to be dead, and mourned over my supposed grave, and I couldn't even make any effort in comforting him. _What's wrong with me? Why can't I help him? Why can't I touch him? He needs me . . .now more than ever . . .and I can't touch him . . ._

"It's all my fault . . .I should've never gone looking for it . . ." he told me quietly, still focusing his now opened eyes on the floor again and not looking at me. I was getting used to this ignored treatment I was constantly receiving from him, but it still hurt me.

You could never tell the grief he is going through by looking him in the eyes . . .he's so good at making people believe he doesn't have a single emotion running through his body.

"The stone, you mean?" I whispered quietly to him, holding in the tears and choking back sobs that were on the verge of escaping out of me. He didn't acknowledge my input, but ran his hands through his gold bangs and rested them back on his knees once more. The silence of the room was killing me and I wanted so badly for somebody to randomly barge in here with a tuba or something and start playing as loud as they could . . .just to break this horrible silence . . .

"If I hadn't gone looking for it . . .Al . . .would never have gotten killed . . .and if I had just left Alchemy be in the first place, he would have never had to go through all that . . ." he continued, staring at his hands in deep thought. His eyes were closed again, but not in a strained way, but more in a peaceful sort of way. It still wasn't as calm as he looked when he was asleep, but it was close enough.

"It wasn't your fault . . ." I added in, now looking at the floor also. I heard him turn in his spot to face me for once, maybe amazed by what I was saying. My face grew hot as I stared at the wood patterns, fiddling with the edge of my skirt as well. "and besides, Ed, you're strong . . .you'll be fine—"

A loud sound of frustration issued from his mouth and I looked up to see his amber eyes glinting with fury. Before I could say another word, he stood to his feet so suddenly, he knocked over the table in front of us. "HOW CAN I BE FINE WHEN MY LITTLE BROTHER IS GONE! HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO GET ON WITH MY LIFE WITHOUT AL BESIDE ME!" he shouted, glaring down at me who was still sitting on the couch, staring up at him with tear-filled eyes. Ed walked to the other side of the room and crossed his arms over his chest, his back facing me. I slowly stood up from the couch and took a step towards him, but stopped.

"It's . . .its not . . ." I trailed off, not finding the right words. I stepped towards him slowly until I was about three feet away. "You made it through a year without him, didn't you? What makes you think that you can't live you life anymore? Besides . . ." I was interrupted by a low sigh from him and I stopped in mid-sentence.

"I sacrificed almost everything to save . . .and I just don't want to keep living like this . . .with all of this guilt hanging on me . . ." he drifted off from there, finding it too hard to continue. I reached out my arms to hug him from behind, but took them back and looked the other way. He's just not in the mood . . .I walked back to the couch and picked up the table that was still lying on the floor. He didn't say a word as I moved from the couch to the opposite wall from him and leaned up against it, staring out the dark window. Raindrops were starting to land on the outside glass and the chilling wind continued to blow incessantly. I pressed my hand up against the cool glass and squinted into the darkness, not knowing what else to say to him . . .

"Listen to you! All you're doing is putting yourself down!" I suddenly shouted at him, turning around to face him, but he still had his back to me. Anger rose inside of my chest uncontrollably and I stomped over to him and grabbed his shoulder forcefully. Taken back from my grip, he spun around and almost knocked me over. He glared at me hard; his gold eyes slanted coldly, but didn't say a word. "You say that you don't want to live in misery anymore, but here you are, constantly blaming every little thing that happened on yourself!"

"You think it's _my_ fault! You think that I _want_ to feel this way! I've tried so hard to forget everything but I can't! I can't! I'm a hopeless bastard with nothing in life to live for anymore—"

"Just shut up, already! Stop talking about yourself like that! You're not hopeless, you're not a coward—you're Edward Elric! You're the Full Metal Alchemist!"

"I _used_ to be that! Everything's lost! Nothing I once had is here anymore! Nobody remembers my name, nobody remembers my face—nobody remembers me at all! I'm dead in their eyes!"

"_I_ remembered your name! _I_ remembered your face and I REMEMBERED YOU! I NEVER FORGOT YOU!" I hollered at him, my face burning with heat. Ed picked up a nearby vase and threw it against the far wall. It shattered with an ear-splitting sound and the pieces flew everywhere.

"BUT YOU'RE JUST ONE PERSON!"

"SO NOW WHAT? AM I NOT IMPORTANT TO YOU ANYMORE!"

"YOU WERE NEVER THAT IMPORTANT TO BEGIN WITH!" he shouted into my face, his eyes narrowed with fury. I closed my mouth when he said these last words. I felt my heart break into a million pieces inside of me and my soul felt crushed. I let my limbs hang loose to my sides in disbelief, staring at him with shining eyes. "WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED YOU! YOU NEVER CAME TO ME WHEN I NEEDED SOMEONE TO HELP ME OUT OF A HARD TIME! YOU WEREN'T THERE WHEN AL DIED, AND YOU WEREN'T THERE WHEN I LOST MY GRIP!"

The hatred I was feeling towards him at the moment was rising to a dangerous level and I felt like I could just explode any second. I clenched my fists at my sides, my sorrow forgotten and bit my lower lip in frustration.

"YOU'RE USELESS! YOU'RE NOTHING TO ME! I THOUGHT YOU WOULD COME BACK HERE AND TELL ME EVERYTHING'S ALL RIGHT, BUT YOU ONLY COME HERE TO SCREAM AT ME! YOU'RE NOTHING AT ALL TO ME!"

"JUST SHUT UP!" I screamed in final fury and threw myself at him, grabbing hold of him tightly. He didn't pull away, but seemed frozen in where he was standing. I pressed my lips firmly on his and held them there for the longest time. When I finally pulled away from him, he was staring at me like I was crazy; with his eyes wide in shock and his face burning bright red—but not from anger anymore. Just realizing what I had done, I covered my mouth with my hands and began to blush furiously. _What did I do that for! Was I just trying to make him shut up! WHAT THE HELL?_

"YOU'RE SUCH AN IDIOT!" I screamed at him, trying to cover up what I had just done by yelling at him some more. Even though the blush was still bright on his face, he made it seem like he was angry again. "YOU CAN'T JUST SHUT UP WHEN I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING, CAN YOU! I HATE YOU! YOU ARE THE MOST INSUFFERABLE BOY I'VE EVER MET!" I waited for him to yell back at me, keeping the heat of the argument alive, but there was only silence. I panted heavily from all of my shouting and swallowed with difficulty, feeling my voice starting to leave me. Ed stared down at me with a dazed look in his eyes and started to lean towards me, closing his eyes slightly. When he was about four inches away from my face, I pulled back my hand and slapped him across the face as hard as I could, making him look the other way. He stumbled backwards, his left hand resting on his cheek and gazed at me in shock. His cheek was already starting to glow bright red, but I held no regrets.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" he yelled at me, still holding his cheek protectively and now standing a safe distance away from me. I glared as hard as I could in his direction, my face still burning bright red from embarrassment and old anger.

"I'm trying to argue with you and you try to kiss me!" I yelled at him, glaring at him furiously. _Why did he try to kiss me just now? What came over him?_

"Well, you just kissed me!" he shouted back at me, making the fact clear. I opened and closed my mouth like a fish out of water, a deep rouge blush starting to form on my cheeks. No words came to me at the moment and I just stood there stupidly, my face blooming with colour. _He had a point . . ._

"Well . . ." I started, trying to make up some excuse for my actions. I stumbled around with my words for a moment, looking down at the floor. "I only did it so you would shut up!" I finished, glaring him back in the eyes. "You wouldn't shut up so I had to stop you somehow! You just go on and on and on and don't stop whatsoever! It was the only way to make you finally shut the hell up from bitching and whining and complaining and—"

A sharp sting smacked me across the face and my head snapped to the side. I froze where I was for a second, my mind unaware of what just happened, but then soft, gloved hands grabbed my cheeks and warm lips suddenly pressed against mine in a forceful sort of way and I completely lost it. I jerked away from him and backed up. He was staring at me with a bright red face and glanced down at the floor nervously.

"WHY DID YOU SLAP ME!" I screamed at him, thoroughly confused by his actions. Ed didn't say anything, but stomped away from me, and back to the window. I followed after him, not finished with him yet.

"You could've just asked me to shut up and I would've! I'm not as thick-sculled as you are! I know when I need to shut up! You didn't have to slap me! Besides, it's rude to hit a girl, don't you know that!" I bitched at him, staring at his back and sagged shoulders. He quickly spun around and faced me, his face still bright red from a blush and frustration.

"Look, I'm sorry already! It worked on me and I thought it . . .would work . . .on you . . ." he yelled at me, but then trailed off quietly, seeing my confused face. I didn't say another word to him, as he looked the other way again, the irritation getting to him. "It never happened, okay!" he stated in a final sort of way, signaling the end of our argument. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked the other way. I, too, crossed my arms and looked in the opposite direction, still pissed about what had just happened. We remained like that as we muttered little sounds of agreement.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Never happened."

"Yup, never happened."

We remained silent for a bit, still not looking at each other and standing in a pouty way. The awkward silence that passed between us was starting to get heavy and I could tell that Ed was getting annoyed by it by the way he kept sighing. Eventually, he moved away from me and stomped down the hallway to where he knew we had our spare bedrooms and slammed himself inside one of them without a 'good night'. Now knowing that he was gone, I also moved out of my position and stared at the closed door in which he had just entered through. I sighed quietly to myself and slowly stepped up the stairs to my old bedroom, remembering the way to it exactly. I pushed open the door to see it all in the same way it looked when I had left it . . .except for a lot of dust. _I'll clean later . . ._

I walked over to my bed and sat down on the covers, too tired to move. After a while, my eyelids began to grow heavy and they started to droop. I tipped over slowly and landed on my bed on my side. I stared out the window across from me and saw the rain lashing the glass outside ferociously, the storm now raging. I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep.

LATER IN THE NIGHT

I opened my eyes again for at least the 20th time since I had fallen asleep, the rain constantly waking me up. There was also another thought running through my head that wouldn't leave me alone. Getting frustrated by this, I swung my legs around to the side of my bed and stood on the cold wood floor in my bare feet. I stepped over to the door, glaring at my rain soaked window as I passed it, and opened the door quietly and slowly. The house still had its' lights on, none of us bothering to turn them off when we stomped away in our opposite directions to sleep. I walked down the stairs, cringing with each creaking sound the steps made until I reached the bottom. I turned down the hallway to where the spare bedrooms were located and paused in front of the room Ed had shut himself inside of.

I slowly turned the knob of the door and pushed it open. I stood in the dark room, seeing his body on the bed, sleeping peacefully. I stepped closer to him, trying not to make a single sound. I watched his sleeping figure for a moment, marveling at the peaceful way he looked. His golden hair was messed up again and his red cloak, boots and gloves were lying on the floor aimlessly, deserted and forgotten for the night. I took another step towards him, but something slipped underneath me and I flew backwards on the floor with a crash. I lay there, dazed as I heard him sit up abruptly in the bed, startled by the noise.

"What do you want?" he asked me coldly, some of his anger from earlier reflecting in his voice and sleep muddling up his words. I sat up quickly and looked up at him, who was staring down at me with half-lidded eyes. I looked away from him, the embarrassment getting the better of me.

"I'm sorry . . .but I kept thinking about something you said to me . . .two years ago . . ." I whispered quietly to the floor, unsure of what to say next. There was a long pause of silence between the two of us, and then knowing that he wasn't going to say anything to my previous sentence, I continued.

"What did you have to tell me back at the train station?" I blurted out rather quickly, the words just flowing out of me too fast. Ed still didn't say anything, but continued to stare at me unemotionally. I put my head down in shame of asking him something like that. _He probably doesn't even remember himself . . ._

After some more silence, I said softly: " . . .That's . . .all I thought about when . . .well . . .we were separated . . ." I waited for him to be silent again, pretty sure that he wasn't going to talk to me at all. I stood to my feet grudgingly; thinking that this was the end of our conversation and started to head towards the door, my face blooming pink.

"I wanted to tell you . . .I wasn't going to be there when you got back . . ." Ed suddenly whispered quietly, breaking the silence. I stopped walking and turned around to see him sitting up in bed, staring at the covers in front of him. There was almost a trace of a smile on his face as he said these words. " . . .you see . . .I had a mission that next week . . .and I just forgot to tell you . . ." he finished, that faint smile still on his face. _Did he think it was ironic how he wasn't going to be there when I was supposed to get back, but I didn't come back anyway? Is that what was making him smile like that?_

He looked up at me, that ghost of a smile gone from his face. His golden eyes reflected the light coming from the living room behind me. I stared him straight in the eyes, not afraid to look away from him this time. "I can't believe you're here . . .when I heard the news . . .I was so afraid . . .I went into denial, I guess you can say. Then . . .then Al died . . .and I completely lost it . . .I gave up all hope for happiness and just shut myself away from everything . . ." his voice dropped to a bare minimum that I had to almost lean in towards him to hear the rest. Though his words were soft and capable of tears, he did not cry. He wouldn't cry . . .

I walked over to him and sat down on the edge of his bed carefully and rested my hand on his in a comforting gesture. He didn't seem to acknowledge my action, but remained still and unmoving. His hand was cold and clammy and I almost pulled away from it, but stopped myself.

"It's okay now . . .you'll get through this . . ." I whispered softly to him, choosing my words more carefully then earlier. I almost waited for him to lash out at me again, but he only looked down at the floor to the side of him, shielding his eyes from me by his long bangs.

"It's just not fair . . .how is it that one survives and the other dies? Who decides that? Where's the equivalent exchange in that? Why did it have to be me? Why did I have to be the one who lives?" he asked himself more than me, subtle anger rising in his voice. I leaned towards him, desperately trying to look him in the eyes.

"Don't say that! Things . . .just happen for reasons . . .but . . .Ed . . .you have people that really care about you . . .and . . ." I stopped talking when I saw his gaze switch from the floor to our hands that were still piled on top of each other. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but I quickly pulled away from him, embarrassed by my actions. I stood up from the bed and started towards the door again, acting as if nothing had happened.

"But about you . . .how did you make it and nobody else?" he suddenly called to me from the bed, trying to make me not leave. I stopped yet again right in front of it, but I didn't turn around to face him like last time. I took a deep breath, trying to remember exactly what had happened that night . . .

"It's strange . . .but I was standing on the back of the train, trying to clear my head from a headache earlier when I heard the sound of screeching metal and I was jolted around where I was standing. I remember grabbing onto the railing, trying to steady myself as the train suddenly reared off to the side and I flew out of the place I was standing in and landed on the grass along side of the tracks," I told him, reflecting back on the horrible night. "I watched as the train careened off of the tracks and fell into the river below us just as a fire broke out in the engine. I saw the people trapped inside of the train, either burning or drowning from the rushing water . . ." I dropped my voice to barely a whisper, tears welling inside of my eyes from the memories. Ed was silent the whole time, listening intently to everything I was saying.

"I tried to help them . . .but my leg was twisted and I could only crawl . . .so I crawled into some of the trees near me where I stayed there the night. Some time in the middle of the night, a lady came to me and took me to her house and helped me get better . . .she didn't tell anybody that I was from the train, which made everyone believe that I was dead in this town. I stayed with her for about three weeks until my leg was better, and then I started to live on my own. I thought about coming back here earlier, but I didn't want to scare everybody out of their wits by just showing up randomly. So I stayed in various hotels, buying tools, fixing auto-mail and trying to live for those two years . . ." I continued, still not turning around to face him.

"Then . . .one night . . .I was out late coming back from somebody's house and making an auto-mail for them when the thought of you ran through my mind. I _had_ been thinking about you a lot, but the question of your life kept bugging me, so I finally asked someone if they had heard about you lately. They told me that you were dead and so did many other people until one person said that there was a slim chance of you still living. I took that as a 'yes' and ran to this town as fast as I could . . ." I finally finished and turned towards him, smiling lightly to him. He was staring at me, but there was no trace of anger in his eyes anymore.

I walked over to him and at back down on his bed again, staring him in the eyes. I leaned forwards and wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing my face into his shoulder. He didn't hug me like usual, but I didn't mind anymore. I was starting to get used to the way he was.

"You scared me . . ." he whispered softly, his voice so close to my ear, but still so faraway. I held him tighter, enjoying the way he felt against me. I smiled into his collarbone and closed my eyes. The next thing that happened caught me by surprise and I almost jumped in shock. Two arms slowly wrapped around my body and held me close. A cold touch of metal brushed up against my exposed back and I flinched involuntarily, but stopped myself, not wanting to make him more self-conscious about it. He buried his face into my shoulder gently as he held me tight. _He's holding me . . .this is the first time he's ever held me like this since we were ten . . .and now . . .after seven years . . .he's not afraid anymore . . ._

"I didn't mean to say those things to you . . .I was just . . ." He suddenly let go of me and I let my arms drop as well. He stared at me for a moment, then looked down at the covers again. "You'd better go . . ." he informed me, signaling the end of our conversation. As much as I didn't want to leave, I stood up from his bed and walked to the door again and this time, walked through it. Just as I was about to close the door, I turned around to face him and smiled gently.

"Goodnight . . ."

"G'night . . ."

I closed the door and walked back to the stairs and stepped up them one-by-one, climbing to the top. I went back to my room and closed myself inside of it again. I snuggled under the covers and turned towards the window. The rain had stopped and some drops still clung onto the glass outside. I rolled back to the other side to face the wall and mindlessly clutched my hand that was resting on his a few minutes ago. I smiled softly to myself and closed my eyes, my thoughts and questions finally answered.

_I was scared too . . ._

A/N: YAY! Chappie 2 is done! Did you guys like it? I'm glad the first one was good enough for reviews! Did that chappie answer your questions? If you guys have anymore, they'll probably be answered in the next one too! Eh . . .:sweatdrop: Yea. So, please review this! Till next update!

K-c


	3. Duty Calls

Written in Blood  
K-c 

A/N: YAY! Thank you guys so much for reviewing! You rock my world! Well, I'm not gonna have author notes at the ends of my chappies anymore cuz all I seem to do in them is give away stuff about upcoming events! So . . .yea. I'm glad you guys like this! This is my first actual angst fic so I thought it would suck. YAY! Here ya go!

Note to Yunie-O: YEA! I would love to know the website to read the rest of the series! Thank you so much! You can give me the address in a review, if you want! You're so sweet!

Disclaimer: Man . . .I don't know WHY I have to do this! Ehh . . .I do not own any of the characters in this fic . . .HAPPY NOW?

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Ch. 3: Duty Calls

Ed's POV:

"Ah . . .don't wake me up just yet . . ." I mumbled sleepily after I had heard my door creak open more than ten times already. Yes, the sun was probably shining to its' fullest, but I had the blinds closed and I refused to open them and face the morning . . .er . . .afternoon. I haven't slept soundly for two years and she expects me to get up at the crack of dawn? Easy for her! She's used to waking up so freaking early to work on auto-mail or something . . .I'm used to being a slug all day!

"For the last time, Edward, GET UP!" Winry hollered into my room, the building irritation getting the better of her. When she saw that I didn't move, she flung her famous and well-known wrench at me and it clanged into my head. I fell off of the bed and onto the hard floor with a loud thump, pain searing already on my forehead. I jumped to my feet and faced her, an obvious lump rising on my forehead. She was smiling and giggling at me . . ._GOD! She pisses me off!_ . . .but I held in all of my early morning—er, afternoon—anger, not wanting to make her get any more irritated at me than she already was. I let out a low sigh and started to head towards the door, not bothering to put my red jacket back on. Winry moved away from the door to let me pass by and she continued into the kitchen. I plopped down on the couch, still tired and trying to wake up, as she cooked something feverishly. _She had obviously gone shopping earlier this morning, too. _

The smell of eggs and bacon wafted over in my direction and I perked up. I sat up straight and stared over at the kitchen, my mouth watering uncontrollably. Everytime she glanced over in my direction, though, I closed my mouth, trying desperately to not show my hunger and happiness. After what seemed like endless hours of pained torture of my growling stomach, she placed a plate down on the table. I hurried over to it discretely and sniffed the wonderful fumes of breakfast yet again. Before I knew it, I had eaten everything on the plate without her noticing. I looked down at the bare plate and cringed. _That wasn't supposed to be for me . . ._

"Ok! After I'm done eating, I'll take a look at that arm of yours, okay?" she announced cheerfully, stepping lightly out of the kitchen and over to me and the horribly noticeable empty plate. I slid the plate behind me and stood there awkwardly to block it, my face burning bright red from embarrassment and my damn nerves. She gave me a strange look, but sat down at her seat anyway. After gazing around the bare table, she scratched her head thoughtfully.

"I thought I put my plate down here . . .now where did it—" her eyes shot daggers at me as she switched her gaze from the table to me, standing beside her, hiding the plate behind my back. I started to sweat under her dark and accusing glare, but refused to move an inch, afraid of exposing the scene of the crime. Winry leaned towards me, as if attempting to stare right through my eyes and into my mind to see my guilt and I stared right back at her, trying to not look obvious.

"Move, Elric," she ordered me sharply, that glare still on her face. I didn't move and remained completely still, my body not even allowing me to budge if I could at all.

"Move."

"No."

"Move!"

"Why?"

"MOVE, DAMMIT!"

"NO!"

She pushed me aside and I landed on the floor beside the table, only to hear her gasp in shock. I cringed in advance for what was to come . . .the wrench.

"YOU ATE MY BREAKFAST? YOU'RE SUCH A PIG!" she screamed at me, looming over me menacingly. It wasn't the wrench that my face was greeted with, but a spatula . . .probably because that was closest to her. But the hell didn't end there. She started to fling every goddamn utensil from the kitchen at me . . .including knives . . .all the while screaming things at me that I didn't really care to hear because I was too busy dodging the make-shift missiles.

When the smoke of the battle cleared, Winry was standing in the kitchen, panting like she had just ran a marathon, while me, on the other hand, practically did run a marathon. Knives, spoons, bowls, spatulas, forks and even a blender littered the floor space in between us, but I wasn't hit by a single one of them. I sat up from hiding behind the couch and grinned at her, only to receive a hit to the face with her handy-dandy wrench. _Oh that's nice . . ._

"It was . . .an accident . . .?" I finally managed to say after all of that, from the floor. Winry stomped over to me and loomed over me, staring down at my tired body and smiled in a poisonly -sweet sort of way. She winked down at me and turned around, stepping over the debris as she went.

"Ah, oh well. I understand why you ate it . . .you're still trying to reach that goal, right?" she smirked at me from over her shoulder slyly. I stood to my feet, wondering what the hell she was talking about. Her blue eyes narrowed into maniacal slits and she just smirked away, leaving me feeling rather out of the conversation. She waltzed back into the kitchen and to the refrigerator. I watched her curiously for a moment, then I started to turn back around to sit on the couch, but she suddenly reached inside and whipped out a carton of none other than—milk.

"TRYING TO GROW TALLER, THAT'S WHAT!" She declared, brandishing the carton of milk in the air as if it were some kind of prized treasure. My mouth dropped open as I stared at her unbelievably. She started to laugh her head off at my expression, waving the milk around like a banner.

"YOU'RE STILL THE SIZE OF A BEAN EVEN AFTER TWO YEARS!"

"SHUT UP ALREADY! STOP SAYING I'M A TINY LITTLE BEAN THAT YOU COULD CRUSH INTO THE SLIMY DIRT AND STEP ON!"

"I GOT YOU BEAT STILL ON HEIGHT! HAHAHAHA!"

"I GOT YOU BEAT ON BRAINS, YOU DIMWIT!"

"I'M NOT THE STUPID ONE BECAUSE AT LEAST _I_ REMEMBERED TO DRINK MILK WHEN I WAS LITTLE!"

"WHY THE HELL WOULD I WANT TO DRINK THAT CRAP ANYWAY?"

"BECAUSE THEN YOU WON'T BE BEAT BY GIRLS THE SAME AGE AS YOU!"

"MACHINE FREAK!"

"ALCHEMY FREAK!"

"AH FORGET IT!" I hollered in final frustration and stomped away from her, fury bubbling up inside of me. I plopped down on the couch and brewed in my hatred and irritation. _She really knows how to piss me off! _After a long pause of silence when none of us made a sound, she broke it.

"Shorty . . ." she muttered under her breath from behind me and over the couch back. I had had enough. I leapt to my feet with a yell of frustration and jumped over the back of the couch, landing on Winry. She tried to squirm away from me, but I pinned her down forcefully. I grinned down at her evilly, trying to mask my annoyance.

"MY HEIGHT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!" I shouted down at her, staring down at her beautiful blue eyes. My face started to burn with heat from having this gorgeous girl pinned down below me, but I didn't think she noticed because she only closed her eyes and screamed as loud as she could:

"AAAAAHHHH! ED'S TRYING TO RAPE ME!" That killed it.

"WHAAAAT? YOU SICK-MINDED LITTLE—" I didn't get to finish my sentence because the next moment was filled with pain. Winry had reached up and grabbed my braid, pulling on it hard. I cried out in sudden pain, trying to pull free from her grasp. Her eyes were slanted evilly and she glared slyly up at me.

"What were you saying about me?" she asked me sweetly, tugging on my braid a little harder, just to hear my grunts in pain and discomfort. "That I was the most beautiful, sweet and loving girl you ever met? Oh, Eddy! I'm so touched! Ed's a softy-soft—"

I pressed harder on her arms, desperately trying to make her shut up. I gave a strained smile at her and glared. "Another word and I swear I'll—"

"Do what?" she retorted, leaning up closer to me so that our noses were barely an inch away from each other. Her beautiful blue eyes were staring deep into mine and I almost saw something new glint from within in. _Lust? The hell?_ My face started to glow bright red as she stared at me with that look.

"Well . . .I see you've gotten your act together, Full Metal . . .a little too quickly . . ." a deep voice chuckled from by the door and I quickly looked up to see none other than Mustang leaning up against the doorway, smirking at me. _O what a scene he was walking in on . . ._ I jumped as far away from Winry as possible and started to panic . . ._yea . . .I lost it . . ._ My face was blooming bright red and my nervous and scattered behaviour didn't seem to cover up anything at all.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I hollered at him, pointing my finger in his direction. " . . .and what do you mean 'too quickly'?" I muttered under my breath as well, his words finally sinking into my mind. Mustang just continued to smile in that annoying sort of way and moved away from the door and over to me. He side-glanced Winry and gave a small, polite smile in her direction.

"I knew all along that you weren't 'dead', and when I saw Winry walking towards your apartment, I knew that you two would soon be together . . .man, was I right about that one!" he declared happily to himself, giving a small chuckle. My anger boiled to the surface along with my panic and I jumped up and down in a fit.

"YOU SHUT UP! IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'RE THINKING! _RIGHT_ WINRY?" I shot her my world-famous "you-better-agree-with-me-or-I'll-seriously-kill-you" look from the corner of my eye. She only smiled in a sly way, and I saw that Mustang was looking at her . . ._Great job, Winry . . .now he's gonna tell the whole military about this . . ._

Mustang cleared his throat and I switched my attention back to him, remembering that he was the person in charge of me. "But that's not the only reason why I came to see you, Full Metal," he started, his face taking on the more serious approach. I straightened up as he talked, my curiosity of what could possibly be so important that he had to come to me, grabbing a hold of me. "There have been reports from Central about a group of three people wandering around at night, causing trouble every now and then and taking children from their homes at night . . ."

I looked down at the floor, my body stunned momentarily. I knew what he was saying, but I wouldn't believe it. I closed my eyes for a second, as sudden images of that horrible night flashing before my eyes.

_"LET HIM GO! DON'T TOUCH HIM!"_

_"Shut up, Elric . . .stop your whining already!" Envy grinned as he moved the knife closer to the blood-seal on his armor. I struggled under the grip of Gluttony holding me back. _

_"AL!"_

_"BROTHER! DON'T LET THEM DO IT! DO SOMETHING!"_

_"DAMMIT, I'M TRYING!"_

_"Agree to do it or it's the end of your little brother's empty life!" Envy shouted at me, giving me one last chance to kill the people behind me. I thrashed around madly, desperately trying to reach my brother across from me. _

_"I WON'T DO IT! AL, YOU'RE GONNA BE FINE! ARRGH!" I hollered at the top of my lungs as Lust extended her horrible fingers at me and slashed me across the face with them, sending blood to run down my left cheek. When I glanced back up, Envy was moving the knife closer and closer to the blood-seal. I watched helplessly as it moved over it and blocked it from my sight. _

_"AAALLLL!" I screamed out, seeing the knife slice right through the armor and the blood-seal disappeared, along with my brother's screams. _

_"ENVY! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY BROTHER! **I'LL KILL YOU!**"_

"Edward?"

I opened my eyes, invisible tears welling inside of my irises. I looked up from the floor to see Winry giving me a very concerned look from across the room. Her blue eyes were wide in worry and she fiddled with the bottom of her skirt aimlessly as she gazed at me. Mustang was also giving me a look of mild concern, but didn't make any effort in seeing what the problem was. _He knows what's going through my mind . . .I now know why he came to me for this task . . .he knows I want something back from those damned homunculi . . .he knows I want revenge for my brother . . ._

"You don't want to face them again, am I right?" he asked me in his business-like tone of voice. I looked him straight in the eyes, regaining my dignity and unemotional habits that I carried with me everywhere . . ._Winry doesn't need to see my fear . . .my pain . . .my sorrow . . ._

"Yea . . .but I'll do it . . ." I replied to his earlier comment, not admitting fully of my nerves, but I knew he saw it in my eyes. My heart was pounding while thinking of what I would have to face after two years without worry . . .I couldn't give up now. Winry said it herself . . .I'm the Full Metal Alchemist. And when duty calls, I have to take it and not let my personal life interfere . . .that's the way of being a State Alchemist . . .I may have been away for two years, but that doesn't mean that I lost my title . . .

"Right. You will board the train tonight at 7:30 and will report the following day at 10:00 a.m.," he ordered, saluting me stiffly, not a trace of a warm smile on his face . . ._he looked exactly like he used to . . .and acted like it, too . . ._

"Got it," I replied, saluting him back, not as proudly, but half-heatedly. I haven't done that to someone for the longest time, my arm felt like it was going to fall off from shock. Mustang then turned and bowed at the middle politely to Winry who lowered her head in return. He marched back out of the house, but not without another grin back at me. Before I could sick my anger out on him, he was gone and out of my sight.

I plopped down on the couch, spreading out rather comfortably and rested my chin in my hand with my elbow my knee. I heard and saw out of the corner of my eye Winry inching towards me and waited silently for the wave of questions to fall down upon me. In contrary, however, all she did was move to her usual, old desk in the corner and picked up her bag of tools. She walked back to me, staggering under the weight, showing that she had done some heavy shopping this morning for tools, too, and settled down in front of me. I didn't look over at her as she began to take out various screwdrivers, wrenches, and other sorts of crap and laid them out in front of her. There was a moment of silence between us when neither her nor me moved.

"Well, it'll be a lot easier if you would let me look at your arm . . ." she said sarcastically, putting her hands on her hips impatiently. I rolled my eyes subtly and turned on my stomach, holding out my arm to her lazily. She issued a little sound of annoyance, but propped my arm up on a table that she pulled over to us and bent down over her work.

I listened to her work quietly on my destroyed arm and turned my head to face the couch, staring at the white leather. She still hadn't asked the questions I knew were on her mind and the pressure and suspense of it all was slowly killing me inside. I almost wanted to turn to her and yell something like 'Well, ASK ALREADY!', but I held my tongue, knowing she will eventually drown me in inquiries.

"So you're leaving again?"

This wasn't the question I was expecting to come from her. I heard the soft hurt rising in her voice as she asked me that and I bit my tongue a little harder until it almost bled. It was true . . .I was leaving her again . . .I come back for one night . . .and leave the next day . . .I can't do this to her . . .it's too cruel . . .she has spent two years worrying sick over me and her hope probably rose to a unusual level . . .now to only deflate back down again . . .

I turned my head back around to see her head still bent over my arm, working diligently, but slowly. Very slow. I couldn't see her eyes because her bangs were shielding them from my sight, but part of me didn't want to see them . . .I didn't want to see her tears . . .I didn't know how to react to a question like this and I knew that every second I spent thinking over it, she would only grow more and more depressed. I had to do something.

"Winry . . .it's only for a little bit . . .I'll be back soon enough . . ." I tried I convince her that my stay in Central wouldn't be long. I knew that after I had said those words that they were the wrong things to say. She suddenly slammed down her wrench on the table with a loud thunk, making me jump slightly. Her head was still facing towards the floor, but I saw glittering drops of salt-water fall from her eyes. She stood up from kneeling beside me and gazed down at me with that watery stare. I bit my tongue so hard now, it actually started to bleed and I found it hard to swallow. _Keep a straight face . . .she doesn't need my pain added onto her's . . ._

"But last time it was only for 'a little while' and it ended up being two years!" she pointed out, her voice rising slightly and shaking with sobs. I pulled my arm back to me and ran my fingers along the smoother part absentmindedly.

"But that wasn't my fault, now, was it?" I retorted, sudden anger building inside of me from this tension between us. _She stayed away from me for two years and now she blames it all on me? What is her problem?_

"Don't you have any thoughts in your head? Don't you feel even the slightest amount of regret or pity? Don't you even think about how _I_ feel when you just up and leave me like this?" she shouted at me, her anger, frustration, sorrow and anxiety rising to a high degree in her chest. I sighed to myself, and looked down at the floor. _This is only leading to more trouble . . .we should just stop now . . .Women, I tell ya . . ._

"This is my duty! This is what I do! You said it yourself that I was the Full Metal Alchemist and a State Alchemist, but now you try to hold me back from what i'm supposed to do?" I yelled back up at her, getting extremely annoyed at our constant bickering. She must have been reading my mind because she said that next thing:

"Look at us! We're pathetic! All we do is fight about the dumbest things! We can't be in the same room for more than ten minutes without jumping down each other's throats! What has happened to us? What have we become?" she asked me softly, returning her gaze to the floor and shaking her head sadly with a smile on her face.

"We have become what we were supposed to be."

She looked back up at me as I said these last words without a single tone of anger in my voice. She seemed taken back by my words, but I meant everything I had said. _We have become what we were supposed to be . . .we have become us . . .and we always do this . . .but we make-up eventually . . ._

Another moment of awkward silence passed us by as she stared down at me with that same shocked expression, but didn't say anything more to it. On the other hand, she started to grin as if an idea had came across her mind and she scurried over behind the couch. I scratched my head, confused, as she disappeared from my sight. Then, a tiny voice popped up in my left ear from behind me and I jumped out of my skin.

"Can I come?"

"Un." I grunted in reply, pretending to not hear her.

"Can I come?" she asked a little louder, probably thinking that I hadn't heard her.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Even if I don't get in the way?"

"No."

That was when the waterfalls broke free. I knew I was testing her and I hadcracked the dam and all hell broke loose. She immediately grabbed a hold of my shirt from behind the couch and started to wail into my shoulder. I stood up from the couch, pulling her with me over it and started to walk away, dragging her along.

"OH PLEASE OH PLEASE LET ME COME! TAKE ME WITH YOU! I CAN HELP!" she screamed at me, tears spilling consistently out of her eyes and soaking the hardwood floor. I stepped around the still scattered utensils and to the front door, dragging the wailing girl behind me. _Get off . . ._

"I WON'T GET IN YOUR WAY! I PROMISE! I JUST WANNA COME WITH YOU! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE! I'LL DO ANYTHING! I WON'T CHARGE YOU FOR THIS AUTO-MAIL FIX! AH HELL, **ANY** AUTO-MAIL FIXES THAT YOU'LL HAVE IN THE FUTURE! PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU!"

"No, no, no, no," I stated bluntly with each step I went down on the front porch, hearing her thud behind me. She still wouldn't let go as I began to drag her along the grass to the nearby river where I was actually considering the idea of throwing her in.

"BUT WHHHHYYYYY?" she shrieked in despair, finally letting go of my shirt and falling behind in the dirt. The sudden weight change caught me by surprise and I fell forwards—face first in the grass. I rolled onto my back, seeing the dirt smudges on my black top, but then focused my eyes on the clouds floating by above me in the blue sky. The midday sun beat down upon me and I closed my eyes for a moment, basking in the warmth, but a shadow crossed over me and blocked out its' rays. I opened one eye to see Winry's face looming above me, her eyes still brimmed with tears, but a smile crossing her beautiful face.

"Fine then . . .you brought me to this . . ." she stated, staring down at me. She pinned my right arm to my side and suddenly whipped out a huge-ass wrench—larger than the other she has—and grinned evilly upon me. I gulped quickly, staring up at the menacing tool and cringing at the thought of having that smacked on my forehead. "Take me with you, or you'll go with a last impression of me—ON YOUR FOREHEAD!"

I cowered underneath her slightly, wincing in fear and foreseen pain. "Ok, ok, ok, OK!" I screamed up at her, trying to say anything that would make her go away with that horrible device. _Yea . . .after knowing her for the longest time . . .I guess you can say i'm traumatized by wrenches . . ._

"GIMME YOUR WORD!"

"OK OK OK! YOU CAN COME WITH ME—THERE'S MY WORD! NOW GIVE ME _YOUR_ WORD THAT YOU WON'T HIT ME WITH THAT THING!" I demanded from her, giving in so easily to this. She grinned back at me and put away her wrench. When she gets what she wants, all is well . . .it's always been like that . . .

"Only if you don't do something I want you to do . . ."

" . . . Like always?"

"Exactly!"

With the thought of the wrench being gone temporarily, I sighed in relief, but then blushed profusely when I noticed that Winry was still practically lying on top of me. She moved her arms away from my shoulder and the ground and let herself actually fall on me with a loud 'oof'. She rested her face in my chest for a moment, then turned back around, using me like a pillow, to look at the clouds as well. My face started to burn bright as she laid on me, staring peacefully up at the sky as if nothing was wrong. _Damn her and her obviousness . . .what does she think this is? 'Lay on Ed Day'? Ehh . . ._

"It's been so long since I've been to Central . . .do you think it's changed much?" She suddenly asked me softly, still staring up. I looked from her to the clouds as well, wondering the same question as well. The puffy white forms of clouds drifted aimlessly across the huge, light blue sky gently, moving with the slight breeze. I sighed quietly to myself and felt her rise up and down on my chest.

"No . . .I bet it's the same . . .exactly like we left it . . ." I mumbled to her, smiling at the memories of the beautiful town. Just the thought of walking back in the State Alchemist building and seeing everybody there brought chills up my spine and I could hardly wait. The dread of leaving Winry to cry on her own once again without me had vanished and I was now content with the fact of her coming along with me. I may have put up a resistance, but I have to when I'm around her. Showing my real self would be too much for her . . .and showing my true feelings towards her would be too much, also . . .I couldn't have just agreed to her coming with me so simply . . .

"C'mon . . .you heard the man. We gotta be at the station at 7:30 . . .we'd better start packing . . ." I suggested, much to my own rejection because I didn't want to move away from her. I would lie out here under the sky all day with her if I could . . ._if I could . . ._Winry slowly slid her head off my chest and I stood to my feet, stretching. I looked down at her and saw that she was glaring up at me with that look on her face that I did something wrong. I gazed at her wearily, not really in the mood for being accused again.

"Aren't you gonna help me up?" she asked me in a slightly offended sort of way. I rolled my eyes and stuck out my hand forcefully, trying to make a big scene. She grabbed my hand with a defiant and satisfied look on her face, but as she was still being pulled up, I let her drop back down on the grass. "HEY! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" she screamed at me as I started to take off towards the house, smiling back at her and giving a little wave.

"YOU'VE GOT YOUR OWN LEGS!" I hollered back at her, laughing and smiling all the way. I heard her shout something else, but I didn't understand it because I was already inside of the house. Hurried footsteps chased me down and I was flung forwards onto the couch as something heavy leapt upon my back from behind. She clung onto my back as I was pressed down into the couch, squirming around, trying to break free from her grasp. I finally pulled my face out of the cushions and caught my breath.

"You need to learn your manners, Edward!" she giggled from on my back. She had her arms wrapped around me from behind and refused to let me go everytime I tried to shake her off. The world's largest blush bloomed on my face at the thought of having a gorgeous girl clinging on my back and laying on me, despite her incredibly short skirt.

_God, Ed! You're such a pervert!_

"I don't need to show any manners towards you! You're no lady! I'll save it on some other girl who—"

"ED!"

"WIN'!"

"YOU'RE SUCH AN IDIOT, YOU MIDGET!" _She had struck a nerve._

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A MIDGET?" I screamed at her, shaking her off of my back and making her land on the floor beside the couch. She landed with a soft cry and I immediately regretted doing that . . .but, hey . . ._nobody_ calls me short . . .not even Winry.

"YOU JERK!" she shrieked back at me, and dove towards me again, but I grabbed her in mid-air. I pinned her back down on the floor, holding her arms out to the sides so she wouldn't pull my hair like last time. She laughed her head off from underneath me, her cute face lighting up like a match as she smiled and giggled away. I still felt the blush lingering on my cheeks, but tried to make it seem like it wasn't there.

"Ed . . .you're blushing . . ." she pointed out in a seductive or flirty sort of way. I was taken back immediately and started to panic. _What the hell? No! NO NO NO!_

"WHAAAT? I'M NOT BLUSHING! I'M JUST HOT FROM RUNNING UP HERE!" I rambled out, making the excuses off of the top of my head, attempting to make them sound casual. She only giggled more and more at how I stumbled over my words stupidly. _Nice, Ed . . .very nice . . .what a way to play it smooth as silk . . ._

"Uh huh!" she declared as I moved away from her and she stood to her feet. She smiled at me as she passed by, her face showing that she obviously wasn't believing what I was saying. She kept walking to the stairs and then started to climb them slowly, still smiling at me in disbelief with each step. I glared at her "innocence", but didn't say a word. "Sure, Ed . . .sure . . ." and with that, she slammed herself in her room. I could hear her laughs issuing from behind the closed door and I cursed under my breath, but smiled all the same.

I went down the hallway to my room, stared around the completely empty room, and started to "pack" meticulously and slowly. I left nothing behind, even though I was planning on returning back here at some point, but everything else was nothing to pack at all. All I had was my coat, my boots, some papers from my pockets, my watch and other shitty stuff. I emerged from my room not really expecting Winry to be done—and she wasn't—so I sat on the couch and waited. Finally she came down the stairs with a huge bag being dragged behind her. She stopped in front of me with a satisfied grin on her face. I looked wearily from her to the bag . . ._I'll have to carry that, no doubt . . ._

"Ready, Ed?" she asked me cheerfully, grinning at me with her blue eyes sparkling.

"Yea . . .let's go . . ."

* * *

K-c 


	4. Welcome to Central

**Written in Blood  
By: K-c **

**A/N: Ok, basically this is just gonna be a funny chappie with a bit more serious and confusing stuff at the end. If you are like: "what the hell?" when you're finished reading this chappie, don't worry . . .it all gets explained in the next . . . So . . .all of the things that happen in this chappie (the funny things) really did happen with my friends. I base the events off of them! Most of them are inside jokes (ex: "smooth as silk" from last chappie), but a lot of them are just plain weird. Yea . . .my friends and I are crazy . . .Get used to it! So, here ya go! Thanks for the reviews, BTW!**

**Disclaimer: This is gonna be my last disclaimer for this fic . . .so . . . I do not own any of the characters in FMA. Sorry, cya!**

Ch.4: Welcome to Central

* * *

"Ah! The fresh air of Central!" Winry declared, spreading her arms wide and facing the sky as if to embrace it. She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes for a second, but opened them back up when I muttered something about holding up the people behind us. The large crowd that had gathered behind us started to push their way through, trying to get off of the train. Winry looked over at me and smiled, moving out of the way of the rushing passengers. The huge stream of them passed between us and I lost sight of her for a moment, but the next thing I knew, she was standing right beside me. I grinned wearily at her, struggling under the weight of her bag on my back. 

"Well, where should we go first?" she asked me, excitement rising high in her voice as she leaned towards me, her blue eyes wide in anxiety. I staggered slightly for a moment, almost losing my balance but straightened back up again to face her. She was waiting on my every breath to tell her what exactly we were going to do and I felt like I was in the spotlight. _We weren't really going to do much here . . .just report and leave . . .She must have a shopping spree on her mind . . ._

"Somewhere to put these bags down, maybe?" I suggested the idea, adding extreme emphasis on the word 'somewhere', indicating my head in the direction of the heavy bag on my back. Her face calmed down a bit when I had said that, but she still looked crazy with energy. She grinned at me for a second, placing her hands on her hips and looking away from me, a proud look on her face. I stared in confusion; the bag slowly causing me to sink closer and closer to the ground as my knees gave out.

"Oh of course!" she declared, still beaming off into the distance. Her odd behaviour was starting to irritate me in an exasperated sort of way. A long and awkward moment of silence sidled through us as the train sped off behind us. _What was that long pause there for, then?_

* * *

"Here's your key!" the small lady with light brown hair and a smile that screamed: 'I hate my job, but I'll pretend to like you' said from behind the desk in the lobby of the roomy inn. I reached out and snatched the key from her hand as she held it out to me. After holding the gold key in my palm, I started to realize something and grimaced. 

"Hey . . .this is only one key . . ." I stated, waving the key in front of her, trying to catch her attention but she was busy tending to someone else. She glanced over at me, smiled in that creepy sort of way again, and turned back to her other customer. I could practically feel the heated gaze of Winry on my back and I started to blush in a million shades of red. She appeared beside me, peering over at me and my frozen position, still holding out the key. _What . . .the hell . . .?_

She gazed at me with that worried expression of hers that only made the blush grow more intense on my cheeks. "Something wrong?" she asked me, her voice full of concern and question. I slowly creaked around to face her, waving the key in her face. Her eyes widened a bit, but she didn't show any other signs of the emotion that was running through my body. _One key . . .one room . . .this . . .sucks . . .What am I gonna do? _

"Listen lady! We need two rooms here! It's not like we're married or anything!" I shouted at the lady from over the counter, slamming my fist on the hard wood. A hushed silence fell over the crowded room that was previously bubbling with conversation as all eyes turned on me. This only made me blush even more. The host turned around slowly, her brown eyes shining with fury and frustration. Suddenly, she was sweet again.

"Married? Oh why would I think that? After all, you're too young to be married . . .you have to be at least 14!" she teased innocently, that strained smile reappearing on her weathered face. _That did it . . .she called me short . . .well, indirectly, but still!_

"C'mon, Ed!" Winry quickly called, grabbing my arm before I could start a tantrum and make more of a scene. I glared evilly at the lady as we passed by and all the other people who were either sniggering or staring. Winry pulled me up the stairs and down the hallway before she let go. I was still fuming, but stopped when I saw her serious face.

"So what number is it?"

"Don't think that just because we're IN the same room means I'll actually BE in the same room as you!" I retorted back at her, even though she hadn't said anything about it. She narrowed her eyes at me, giving me a hard glare, and swiped the key away from my hand and gazed at the number scratched on it. She then turned down the hall and continued until she stopped at a door near the end. I followed her slowly, kind of regretting that I had snapped at her without any reason behind it. _You're such an idiot . . ._

"We're 17 now . . .don't be such a baby . . ." she reprimanded me, shoving the key into the lock and turning it. I hung my head in subtle shame, staring at the wood floor beneath me. When I had looked up, she was already inside of the room and I was alone in the hall. I walked inside of the small room and saw a medium-sized bed up against the wall, bathroom to the left and a large window across from me. All in all, the room looked dark and melancholy. Winry was walking around the room and turning on all of the lights as she went, in an attempt to cheer the dank mood surrounding us. I blinked in the bright lights and walked to the bed, throwing her bag down on it. I noticed how the bed sank about five inches when the load was on it . . .

A thought quickly struck my head and made me panic. I suddenly rummaged around for my pocket-watch and flipped it open. The hands read: 9:57 a.m. _Oh crap! I'm gonna be late! AHH! MUSTANG'S GONNA KILL ME! _

"I GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" I hollered back at her as I took off out of the room and raced down the hallway, not waiting for an answer. I flew down the stairs, passing the stupid lady on my way that shouted something at me that I didn't hear, and burst through the door, knocking into something hard. I fell backwards and almost landed on the ground, but grabbed onto the table beside me for support. I looked up to see what it was I had collided into and I saw a young girl with long black hair staring at me. Her big, light purple eyes seemed to scream apologies to me, but they also were extremely transfixed on me. I straightened awkwardly to my feet and scratched the back of my head, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, Miss. I didn't see you there . . .are you okay?" I asked her gently, smiling at her in a gentlemanly manner. She only smiled at me, her pearly white teeth brightening the rest of her face.

"Yes, yes . . .I'm fine . . ." she assured me in a sweet little voice. There was something in that voice that sent shivers up and down my spine, but I didn't pay too much attention to it. She walked past me and into the inn without another word, but still grinning in that strange way. I stood there for another moment in the doorway; my thoughts jumbled up in confusion until my hand involuntarily grasped my watch. _10:01. _

"I'M LAAAATE! OUTTA MY WAY!" I ordered every passerby that got in my way as I stormed down the street, a cloud of smoke billowing out behind me. I ran with all the speed my body could muster in the general direction of the State Alchemist building.

* * *

"You're late, Fullmetal." 

"Yea, well . . ." I paused. "It was Winry's fault! She was all: 'Let's check in and take our own sweet time!' and THAT'S what made me late!" I rambled, speaking in a high-pitched voice in my imitation of Winry. I knew that it wasn't her fault . . .but I had to make up _some_ sort of excuse for my tardiness. Mustang glared at me from over a huge stack of papers and spun around slightly in his swivel chair. I stood before him, panting and sweating from my run there as he looked upon me with that smug look on his face.

"You haven't changed a bit, I see," he sighed under his breath. I looked at him curiously, starting to catch my breath again. I couldn't tell if he was finding me humourous or exasperating—it was so hard to tell by his tone of voice. It was so dead. He turned the whole way around in his chair so that I only saw a huge black mass of the back of it. "You're still the same, little boy who came here several years ago . . ."

"LITTLE!"

"I see _that_ hasn't changed much, either . . ."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING—"

"I don't really have a report for you, but the reason I called you here on such short notice is because I thought you would just like to catch up. We will discuss the matter of the mysterious people later. You are dismissed," he stated, his back still facing me. I stood still for another second, shocked at what he was saying. _So now what?_ I turned around and began to walk to the door when I heard the chair creak around again.

"And Fullmetal . . ." I looked back around to see him facing me, but staring at a piece of paper on his desk and writing something. He didn't look up at me as he said the next words, but they were obviously directed towards me. "Most of the people in this building have come to believe that you really were dead, so just prepare for strange reunions . . ." I nodded my head, even though he wasn't looking at me, and exited the room.

He was right. As soon as I had closed the door, somebody grabbed my shoulders roughly, seizing a hold of me and spun me around. I was staring at a wide-eyed Hughes. He gaped at me; his glasses practically falling off of his nose as his grip on me didn't loosen a bit.(**A/N: This is not based off of the anime or manga . . .so he's alive in this fic . . .)**

"ED? EDWARD ELRIC?" he shouted, still staring at me with that amazed look on his face. I grinned nervously and started to chuckle weakly, the circulation on my one arm slowly cutting off.

"That's me . . ." I muttered quietly, not quite sure how to respond to someone shouting your name in disbelief. Two simple words can make someone go from estactic to flat-out crazy in a matter of seconds. _Note to self: don't respond like that anymore_ Hughes' eyes grew to about the size of dinner plates and he suddenly strangled me in a tight headlock of happiness. The cut off of my circulation now moved to my neck . . .

"WHERE WERE YOU? I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! WELCOME BACK!" he yelled joyfully, thrashing me about in the tight headlock. _I guess I'm gonna get a lot of this . . .oh joy . . ._

"Umm . . .can I breathe now?" I asked softly, my voice cracking with lack of air. Hughes stopped throwing me around and released me from my prison of his arm and I panted heavily. He once again grabbed my shoulders and stared fondly at me, smiling like an old friend.

"C'mon . . .you need to catch up . . ." he offered, and led me down the hallway to where the cafeteria was located. We entered the room and all eyes drifted on me. As we walked by nonchalantly, I saw familiar faces and new ones, but they all showed the same expression: MORTAL SHOCK. Even the people I've never even seen before looked at me as if I was a close friend to them and that they were amazed of my appearance. My face was burning bright red underneath all of the looming stares, but I focused on following Hughes to a table along the far wall. We sat down on the benches as he made himself comfortable, but I remained rigid, still feeling everybody's eyes on the back of me.

"I presume you've had to tell a million people so far about the whole 'I wasn't really dead' thing, so I won't ask you that today," he assured me, resting his elbows on the table and peering over at me through his glasses. I let out a sigh of relief when he had said that. _Sure, I haven't told THAT many people, but I still didn't want to relive every horrible experience I went through in those two years . . ._"Are you traveling alone?" he asked me curiously, ripping me from my thoughts. I knew he was asking me this because I always used to travel with Al, and now he was wondering if I currently went places alone.

"No . . .Winry's with me . . .She—"

"WINRY'S ALIVE TOO?" he bellowed; only to receive more shocked stares in our direction. He almost stood to his feet in amazement, but calmed down a bit when he saw my exasperated face. I nodded my head slowly, trying not to show too much emotion on the matter.

"Yea, she's here too. She saw me one night and she's been following me around since," I stated coolly, making the events that occurred not sound so lovey-like. Even though they weren't. _Get yourself together, Ed!_ "She forced me to bring her along . . .with a wrench."

Hughes grinned at my last statement, understanding the long saga of Edward vs. the Dreaded Wrench that Winry always wielded proudly and used it against me at any given moment. I almost smiled too, but stopped myself quickly. He got up from his seat and walked over to where the drinks were located. During the time that he was gone, a loud wave of whispers erupted from the crowd behind me and my face grew red again. I could still feel their stares burning into me and I wanted to turn around and tell them to beat it, but Hughes came back before I could even move a muscle. He handed me a cup of coffee with many little cups of milk beside it. _What's this symbolizing?_

Hughes stirred in some milk and laid down his spoon. "Have you heard?" he asked me quietly, his voice full of seriousness. I looked up at him from staring furiously at the coffee before me and saw his face. He was looking into his cup, but I could still detect a dark feel to him.

"Heard what?"

"About the three people we've been targeting for four days now . . ."

I didn't respond, but switched my gaze back down to the cup of coffee that was steaming into my face. I stared into the dark, murky depths of it, thinking deeply but not saying any thoughts aloud. _That was the reason I was called here . . .but I still can't grasp the fact that they're really back . . .I thought they would leave when I did . . ._

"Ed, they're homunculi," he stated to me matter-of-factly. I already knew this fact, but hearing it aloud sent a shiver down my spine and I grabbed the cup in front of me on the table to make it seem like I wasn't shaking in fear . . .but I was. My heart was pounding like crazy and every muscle in my body seemed to have lost all control . . .leaving me limp and unmoving. My hands had grown freezing cold and they started to shake slightly as I held onto the cup for all my life. I looked back down into the coffee and saw my reflection staring up at me . . .pale and sickly . . .

"Whether you want to believe it or not, they're back and they're just as bad as before. We have had about 15 cases so far of kidnapping, destroyed buildings and murders without a single sign of a cause. It's starting to get out of hand—"

"SO YOU CALLED ME TO DO THE JOB WHEN YOU KNOW PERFECTLY WELL WHAT I WENT THROUGH?" I shouted at him, standing to my feet so quickly, I knocked over my cup and the coffee spilled all over the table. The fear inside of me was now mixed with fury and hatred . . .hatred to all of the people who used me like bait to bring them here . . .I didn't care if everybody was staring at me right now . . .they all had a link to the decision of choosing me and I hated every single one of them. Hughes gazed up at me, his face rather calm looking.

"Relax, Ed. We just figured that you would have some sort of unfinished business to take care of with them . . .we all know what you went through and we thought you would want to do something in an effect of it," he told me calmly, not raising his voice at all. I stared back down at him and then sat back down across from him, almost all of my anger gone. _Everyone thinks that I want revenge . . .do I? Do I really want to get revenge on the homunculi? Do I?_

* * *

"Winry?" I asked to the back of the girl sitting on the steps of the building I was coming out of. Winry turned around to face me and stood to her feet with a smile on her face. I went down about seven more steps until I was standing just about one or two above her. _When did she get here? Had she been waiting that whole time for me? Is she mad at me for leaving like that? Why did she come to meet me?_

"Oh there you are! How'd it go?" she inquired me, holding her hands behind her back and peering at me curiously. I walked right past her and to the street without saying a word. It wasn't long before she appeared at my side, still trying to look me in the eyes to get a direct answer. When I looked at her, I saw that her eyes were now filled with concern yet again, which only made me want to look back to the street beneath me.

"So where do you wanna go?"

She looked up at me from the street, a confused look covering her face. I smiled warmly at her, trying to cover up my real feelings and thoughts. She didn't answer me at first, just stared at me in amazement (maybe), but then a wide grin spread over her face and I immediately knew what she was thinking. _Mechanic shop_. I didn't even have to ask, I just headed in the direction where I knew one was located, stuffing my hands in my pockets. Winry skipped alongside of me cheerfully, attracting a helluva lot of attention.

We were walking for a bit when I suddenly saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I looked over to my right and saw a small brown cat peeking around a corner at me. I stopped walking and stared directly down at it, and it gazed back to me. Winry stopped a little ahead of me, not realizing my ceasing of movement. _A cat . . .I never really liked them . . . after that bad experience with the cat in the woods when Al and I were little . . .It's gonna bite me, I know it. _Its' big golden eyes stared up at me in wonder.

"OH YOU'RE SO CUTE!" I jumped out of my skin as two arms reached down and seized the poor animal off of the ground. I looked back up to see Winry swinging the cat around in her arms joyfully. I opened my mouth to tell her not to do that, but it was too late for me to say a word. Amazingly enough, the cat didn't do anything. After she had had her fun, she placed the cat back down on the sidewalk and started to walk away like nothing had happened. I stared at the cat for another moment and we exchanged another staring contest. I reached out my hand to pet it when it's mouth clamped around my hand.

"OW! WHAT THE—" I cried out, flinging the cat around, trying to get if off of my hand, but it's bite only tightened. Winry ran over to me and gently and simply took the cat away from me and placed it on the ground and wagged her finger at it stupidly. I stared at my bloody hand sadly. _Why . . .?_

"You can't just pet any random cat! They'll hurt you like that!" she scolded me, turning to look at me. I glared at her furiously, the pain in my hand forgotten momentarily.

"YOU HAVE NO ROOM TO TALK! YOU SWUNG THE THING AROUND LIKE IT WAS A SACK OF POTATOES!"

"So? Cats like me."

"WHATEVER! LET'S GO!" I yelled, grabbing her hand forcefully and pulling her down the road. I could tell that she didn't like the feel of my metal hand, but it was better than a blood-covered one. We eventually reached the mechanic shop, in which she immediately dashed inside. I slowly walked in and observed her crazy behaviour that resembled a four year-old in a candy store. She looked at this, and then she ran over and looked at that, back and forth, muttering stuff to herself the entire time. The man behind the counter watched her with a huge grin, obviously counting on her buying a lot. I glared at the man as I passed by, crushing his dreams into powder. I rested a hand on her shoulder as she had her back to me, actually staying in one place for more than ten seconds. She spun around, shoving a handful of bolts and other sorts of stuff in my face. I stepped back from the pile, taken by surprise by her treasures and her huge, sparkling eyes.

"LOOK AT THESE!" she declared, shoving them closer to me. I took another step backwards, desperately trying to get as far away from her as possible . . .I knew all too well how crazy Winry can get when she gets in a mechanic shop.

"Uhh . . .they're certainly nice, Winry . . .but aren't they a little expensive?" I asked her nervously, pointing to the price tag on the barrel that was rather high. She looked at the barrel behind her and then at the pile in her hands sadly. I sighed in relief by her upcoming decision; happy I didn't have to spend so much money on something like that. Then, she glanced up at me, her eyes sparkling once again and a huge grin on her face.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Don't make me . . ." she warned, reaching to her side where she kept her wrench. I cringed and covered my head with my arms as she did so. _So that's what she meant when she said 'only if you don't do something I want you to do' . . ._

"Ok ok!" I shouted, putting my arms back to my sides and pulling out my wallet. Winry flung her arms around my neck and walked with me to the counter, constricting me and screaming "thank you's" in my ear. I paid for the items with her still clinging to me and walked out of the store with the bag in my hand. Finally, she released me. _I was starting to get tired of having people cling on me today . . ._

"So where now?" she asked me excitedly, her eyes shining with hope of me buying her something else. It was just too hard to say 'no' to that beautiful face . . .and her wrench. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders, not really caring about our next stop.

"I was thinking that we should go buy something to—"

"CHEESE, NORMAN, CHEESE!" a man's voice suddenly bellowed in my ear and I spun around to see a man with huge eyes holding out a large wheel of cheese to me. He glared furiously down at me. I froze on the spot, frightened and confused by this.

"Ex-excuse me?" I stammered out, bending away from him. He leaned down closer to me, holding the cheese closer to my face. Winry clung onto my back from behind, peeking around my shoulder cautiously.

"CHEESE!" he screamed at me.

"B-but . . ."

"Wait . . .who are you?" the man suddenly asked me, looking calmer now and peering into my face curiously.

"Edward Elric . . ."

"Oh . . .whoops. Sorry . . .wrong person," he said and walked away from me to torture another person with his cheese. I watched as the person started to sob apologetically, obviously the person he was looking for. He looked a lot like me . . .but still different. Winry leaned over to me and whispered in my ear:

"What was that about?"

"I really don't know . . ."

* * *

"TURN LEFT!" 

"DAMMIT!"

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING? TURN TURN TURN!"

"I'M TRYING, SHUT THE HELL UP!"

"WATCH OUT FOR THAT WALL!"

"SHUT UP!"

"YOU'RE GONNA CRASH!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

Winry dug her nails into my back and leaned over me further, staring down at the track in front of us. My hands shook as I frantically turned the knob on the controller to make the little remote car turn around the curve. Sweat was running down my face as I quickly reared around one corner and onto the straightaway. People all around us were staring intently at us, confused by our behaviour. Winry screamed her head off when I crashed the car into a wall.

"LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!" I hollered at her, pointing at the jumbled up heap on the track. Winry stood up from kneeling behind me and loomed over me.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CRASHED IT!" she screamed back at me, reaching for her wrench once again and for about the twentieth time so far today.

"IT WAS YOUR DUMB IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE TO DO THIS!"

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT YOU'RE HORRIBLE AT CONTROLLING A TOY!"

"YOU WERE PUTTING PRESSURE ON ME!"

"Let's go!" she giggled cheerfully at me and started to skip out of the store with following stares from other people. I stood to my feet and threw down the controller in frustration and stomped out after her. The sun had already began to set as I walked out of the store and into the fresh air. Winry was walking ahead of me, a light bounce in her step and three bags dangling from her arm. _I gave in too much today . . ._

We didn't say anything else to each other on the way back to the inn for the night. I stared at the back of her head as we walked and sighed. Before I knew it, we were standing in front of the inn. She stepped inside of it and I quickly followed. I don't quite know why, but when I was inside of the lobby room, I looked around for that girl that I bumped into earlier. I didn't see her and I went up the stairs after Winry and to our room. She sat down on the bed and took of her shoes. I, however, remained where I was in the doorway. She smiled over at me sweetly and I walked inside of the room.

_

* * *

Don't wake up, please . . .I don't want to scare you. Just sleep . . . _

I turned the knob of the door very slowly . . .trying not to make a single sound that would wake the beauty sleeping soundly on the bed. The pile of blankets I had been sleeping on were in a jumbled up pile to make it seem like I hadn't left in case she woke up. I opened the door to a crack and the dim light from the hallway poured slightly into the room, falling on her stomach. I squeezed myself through the crack and slipped into the hallway, closing the door behind me with a click. Safely out of the room, I began to walk more casually, fewer nerves on my back. I neared the stairs and stepped down then quietly, making sure not to wake the rest of the guests in the inn. The lobby below was completely empty and not a soul was around, not even the bitchy hostess. I felt like I was in a ghost town as my booted footsteps echoed in the void of emptiness.

I shivered in the freezing night air as I stepped outside of the inn and stood in the street. I stopped walking and gazed up at the dark sky with bright stars shining above me and took in a deep breath. Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I turned and traveled down the street to nowhere in particular.

I went outside almost every night, ever since it became a habit in those two lonely years I spent. I know that if Winry would ever find out, she would chain me down to make sure I wouldn't leave her anymore. I may only leave for about an hour, but I know she would worry sick over me.

Something moved ahead of me and I glanced up to see the tail of a black coat whip around a corner to an alley. I moved a little faster to catch up to whatever it was, my curiousity getting the better. I turned the corner and saw the same young girl that I had bumped into earlier today staring at me, her violet eyes shining in the lamplight behind me. She didn't move and stayed frozen where she was like a thief caught in the act of a crime.

"H-hey! Miss!" I called out to her as she ran deeper into the alley. I don't exactly know why, but I followed after her, keeping the fluttering coat she was wearing in my sight. She kept quite a distance ahead of me, but I eventually got close enough to grab her shoulder. She spun around so suddenly; I almost fell to the ground. Her once scared eyes were narrowed in rage and she glared at me.

"I-I'm sorry . . .I didn't mean to startle you . . ." I stammered out quietly, attempting to assure the frightened girl. _Well, of course she's scared . . .I just chased her down an alley! What am I thinking!_

"What do you want?" she blurted out in a hostile voice, quite unlike the one that I had heard this afternoon. I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it when I realized I had nothing at all to say to her. She jerked her shoulder out of my grip and took off away from me again. She suddenly threw open a door and dashed inside of it without another word. I ran over to the door that she went inside of and pulled it open.

The place inside was completely dark, but I stepped in anyway. I couldn't find a single trace of the mysterious girl, but I knew she was in there. I squinted around in the darkness and took a few steps away from the door that slammed shut. My boots echoed on the cement walls around me.

"Edward? Edward, is that you?"

_That voice . . .it sounds so familiar . . .but it can't be . . ._

"Edward? Please answer me . . .are you there?"

I took a step in the darkness; my body covered in goosebumps and chills running up and down my spine. Far ahead of me, I saw a dim red light peeking around the corner and illuminating somebody's tall silhouette. When I got closer, I saw who it was and I immediately ran into her outstretched arms.

"Mom!" I cried, hugging her tightly though my mind couldn't comprehend a single thing that was going on. It felt so weird . . .like I wasn't hugging the real thing . . .but I couldn't help it . . .my mind went completely blank . . .I couldn't even see straight . . .

"It's okay, Edward, it's okay! I'm here now . . ." she whispered gently in my ear, hugging me tightly like she used to. Part of me wanted to cry my eyes out into her shoulder, but I couldn't even bring myself to say a single word. I tightened my grip around her and smiled into her shirt collar.

"Edward . . .Alphonse is alive . . ."

I looked up from her shirt and stared into her eyes. She was smiling at me as if bringing good news. I didn't know what to say if I could say anything at all. Every word she said, though, it made me want to believe. I wanted to believe her . . .I had to believe her. . I did. I couldn't help it . . .she's . . .my mother . . .

"You can still save him . . .he's not dead . . .Edward, son, you can bring him back . . ."

"Mom . . .how . . .?"

"Look at me," she ordered softly, taking a hold of my cheeks and turning them to face her. I looked her straight in the eyes and suddenly, everything grew a tint of blue. There was something in her eyes that drove me away . . .but pulled me close . . .

"Go."

I let go of my mother and turned around to head to the door. I didn't know where my feet were taking me, but I allowed them to carry me along. Before I knew it, I was walking steadily back to the inn, my eyes focused directly out in front of me. I could hardly breathe . . ._what's . . .wrong with me . . .?_

* * *

"Did it all go according to plan?" 

"Yes . . .he took the bait perfectly . . ."

"Good . . ._very_ good . . ."

**

* * *

K-c **


	5. Destroy My Life

**_Written in Blood_  
By: K-c **

**A/N: So as you can tell, this fic is not based off of anything except for imagination. I know that Hughes died in a recent episode, but I kinda wrote that part before watching the episode. (SO SAD!) Anywho, thanks for the reviews and I know a lot of you are saying that my fic is rivaling Stand Up and Walk Forward by Saturn Stars, but I don't think it is, nor will it ever. She's too good. I try. I'm glad you guys think that, but it's not true.**

**More news from K-c: I have a million school projects that the teachers threw on me at the same time (TWO DUE ON THE SAME DAY! ARRGH!) so it'll be a while till I update from now on. Delayed by projects . . .doesn't that just SUCK! Oh well . . .here's ch.5! Enjoy!**

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Ch.5: Destroy My Life

Winry's POV:

_"Where are you going this time?"_

_"I just gotta leave town for a bit on a mission . . .it shouldn't take long. I'll be back soon."_

_"B-but . . .what am I supposed to do while you're gone?"_

_"Sit here and wait for me like you always did . . ."_

_"I'm so sick of doing that! You leave me all the time! For once, stay for more than three days! Don't you ever think about how I feel when you turn your back on me?"_

_"I'll be back soon . . .don't worry . . ."_

Warm, salty tears spilled down my cheeks and into my slightly parted open mouth as I lay on my back, staring at the dark ceiling above me and the turning fan. A little tassel hung down from the center of it and swung around with the blades in the continuous movement. My eyes followed the fan for a bit, my head getting dizzy but my body not responding to any of it. I wasn't feeling any cool air, but I didn't need to . . .my body was clammy and cold without the assistance of the appliance above me. A light coming from underneath the door cast shadows on the far wall of the dresser and my hand that I held out in front of me to stare at. I watched as my fingers twirled around a long braid that I had kept in my pocket. The silky blue texture rubbed across my fingers gently and I was transfixed by the simple little item.

_Ed gave this to me when we were little . . .a simple, meaningless gift of no value or importance . . .but still, after all these years . . .I still have it. What is it about this braid that causes my heart to pound like crazy? What is this feeling? He's just a childhood friend to me . . .someone who I had known almost my entire life . . .someone who I played and laughed with . . .but what's this new emotion? When he was gone . . .I took out this braid from my pocket every night and just stared at it like this; deep thoughts and memories rushing back into my head. I could never connect my thoughts with my feelings and I always disregarded them as loneliness . . .nothing else. My dreams that flew through my mind each night were always about him . . .but nothing else. Nothing else at all . . ._

The dream I had just experienced hadn't been a new one. I have had that dream many times before and still it caused me to shed tears over it. Even though he's back into my life, I feel like I haven't found him yet. He's so different from what I could remember of him two years ago. I haven't seen him crack a genuine smile for the longest time and I keep finding myself longing and aching constantly to see it. His smile used to brighten my life up one grin at a time, but now . . .now I'm in the dark. As each day passes, I find my mind wandering on the thought of him incessantly like an obsession. I can't sleep at night anymore with the image of him playing in my head over and over again. Words that he's never said before echo through my mind and make tears well up inside of my eyes. Words that he's never said . . .but will someday. Words that I fear to hear with every inch of my body . . .

A low creaking sound emitted from over to my right and I turned my head around to see none other than Edward himself standing in the doorway, his silhouette only visible to me from the light behind him. He stood there for a moment, apparently staring straight into the room and directly at me. I sat up in the bed and clutched the covers to my chest, covering up my slightly revealing top. He didn't seem to notice or realize this as he stepped over to me, his boots thudding softly on the hard wood floor that lay between, separating us. He stopped right beside the bed I was sitting on and stared down at me, his beautiful eyes shining in the meager light. His mere presence made my insides burn with desire and I craved his touch. I swung my legs around to the side of the bed and faced him, wrapping my legs around his'. Every thought in my head was consumed by the fiery passion driving me to do the things I was. I reached up and placed my hands on his sides underneath his red coat.

I didn't feel the same anymore . . .I only wanted him and nothing else. Even if he wasn't reacting at all to my actions, I still wanted him. I needed him. I reached up further and grabbed the collar of his jacket tightly and pulled him forwards, throwing him on top of me. I fell backwards onto the bed, still holding onto him with all of my life. My mind was screaming suggestions for releasing this inner torture inside of my body and things that I could do to satisfy this hungry craving and I felt at a loss. Edward didn't do anything, to my disappointment, even when I began to rub my hands up and down his back . . .he only stared at me. Getting frustrated by his cold emotion, I furiously ripped out his hair tie and threw it on the floor near us. His golden hair fell all over my face and I ran my fingers through it, savouring the silky texture between my fingers. My heart was pounding out of control and my breath was coming short, constricting all of the words I wanted to scream out to him.

_What's wrong with him? I thought this was what he wanted! The way he had looked at me before gave me the hint and now I express my inner feelings to him and he does nothing at all. Why won't he say anything to me?_

It wasn't until I had looked up from pressing my face into his neck that I noticed his eyes. The golden colour seemed glazed over and faded in a way. I couldn't see any emotion running through those beautiful eyes of his and it made me start to freak out. His gaze was still fixed on me perfectly, unblinking and unmoving. I gasped out quietly when I didn't see any pupils within those irises. _What the hell?_

"Edward? Are you okay?" I asked him softly, my voice hushed in fear and wonder. I turned my head slightly to the side to make sure that it just wasn't a trick of light and I soon realized that it wasn't a hallucination. He didn't say anything once again and just continued to stare at me with those haunting eyes. They seemed so hollow and dead . . .like something that isn't even human.

A cold hand suddenly grasped mine and I gasped quite loudly in surprise. I looked down to see Ed holding onto my hand tightly and his eyes still transfixed onto me. He then stood to his feet, moving off of me and still holding my hand with a strong grip and pulled me to my feet as well. I stumbled for a second, but regained my balance as he started to walk to the door without a single word in explanation. I resisted at first, refusing to move from the spot I was standing in, but after a long tug-of-war session between us, I gave in quickly, not wanting my arm to be ripped off. Allowing him to drag me along didn't stop me from asking him a tidal wave of questions.

"Where are we going? What's going on here? Why won't you talk to me? What's wrong with you? Did something happen? Tell me! Ed, talk to me!" I called out loudly, unaware at the moment that other people were in the same hotel as us and were probably trying to sleep at this late hour. My bare feet slapped the wood floor and marched in time with his as he took me down the hallway to the stairs. He dragged me effortlessly down the stairs, making a lot of noise in the process as well. We reached the front door and he burst through it, and into the cold night air. Goosebumps ran through my body as he continued to walk at a fast pace in a direction I wasn't familiar with, but I refused to question him, knowing I wouldn't receive an answer.

Ed turned a corner and marched into an alley, still pulling me along by the hand, and kept walking without a word of assurance for me. _There's something up with him . . .what is it?_ My mind was jumbled up in a bundle of questions and worries towards my 'captor' and my mouth was too dry to say anything at all. My arm was starting to hurt from being tugged on constantly without any relief but I kept thinking that we would eventually reach our destination—wherever it was—and that this torture would soon end.

I was right. Not long after we had turned down into the alley, Ed had finally come to a stop in front of a metal door alongside of the building on our left. As I stared at the door, I observed that it looked like it hadn't been used or opened for more than ten years, but still, Ed was standing right in front of it expectantly. A long moment of silence passed between us as he continued to gaze at the door as if waiting for something to happen. I didn't bother to say a word, even though a question was lingering on the tip of my tongue. _His eyes . . .what's wrong with them? They look so different . . ._

A low screeching sound issued from the door and it started to open slowly, the creaking of old metal growing increasingly louder with each inch. I jumped backwards in surprise from the sudden movement, but Ed's grip on my hand only tightened. I obliged to his silent order and didn't move as the door swung open and a dark silhouette of somebody stood before us. It wasn't until the person stepped out of the door and into the meager glow from the streetlights that I recognized whom it was. _Ed's mother? B-but . . .she's . . ._

"Edward . . .please come in . . ." she whispered in her honey-sweet voice, motioning for us to walk past her and into the building behind her. I remained frozen on the spot, my heart and mind completely numbed over in shock, confusion, disbelief and horror. Ed began to step into the building and tugged on my hand to take me in with him, but I refused to move . . .my eyes were too transfixed on the woman in front of me. _This has to be some sort of trick . . .it can't be his mother . . .she . . .died . . ._

"What's the matter, Winry? I won't bite . . ." she assured in that gentle voice of hers and giving off one of her loving smiles. I knew what she was saying was a lie . . .this couldn't be her . . .it can't. _This is my imagination . . .nothing more than an illusion . . ._Ed yanked on my arm once more in a way of saying 'hurry up and get in' and I wanted to follow him . . .I really wanted to follow him . . .but my body wouldn't move.

One hard tug sent me flying into the building. I stumbled around, trying to stand on my own two feet without toppling over again. Ed didn't bother to steady me, but he was staring off into the distance again, his eyes not really focusing on anything at all. A loud clang of metal sounded behind me and I spun around to see Ed's 'mother' closing the door and walking towards me with a sweet grin on her face. I cringed involuntarily at her cheery face and followed her closely with my eyes, not trusting any of her movements.

"Can any of you bother to tell me what the hell's going on here?" I blurted out, suddenly finding my tongue. Edward's 'mother' turned to look at me, her eyes flashing in the red light coming around a corner and that plastic smile still plastered on her face. Ed also glanced over at me, staring at me with those lifeless gold eyes of his and not a single emotion noticeable on his beautiful face. _I still want him . . .but he's acting so strange . . .I'm almost afraid to go near him . . ._

Ed stepped over to me, letting go of my hand, and rested his natural hand on my bare shoulder. I flinched at his soft touch, my body squirming with crazed thoughts. I felt my heart burn at his mere touch and I had to push back all of my desires for a moment, just trying to understand what was going on here. He stared unblinkingly into my eyes with those solid irises of his. My heart started to pound like crazy and my hands down by my sides began to shake uncontrollably. _I want him so badly . . ._

"Now."

With that little word, so many things happened at the same time. I was quickly scooped up into somebody's arms and carried hurriedly away from Ed who was now being held in his 'mother's' arms, still gazing at me with those lifeless eyes. The woman standing beside him and holding him in her arms smirked evilly at me, her eyes now flashing a light purple colour. I watched all of this in a flash from over the shoulder of who was carrying me like a sack of potatoes. The next thing I knew, I was flung down to the floor with a sharp pain in my back and my arms were quickly tied together at the wrists and my legs bound the same way. I didn't have time to struggle or say anything . . .it all happened so fast . . .

I was picked up again in a flurry of movement and tossed somewhere new this time. I opened my eyes again after closing them in advance to the pain I was going to receive from being thrown on the hard, stone floor again and saw huge tanks of some sort of pinkish-red water surrounding me. The huge tanks of the water bubbled and issued a light glow that engulfed the room I was now lying in. I held my breath in shock and fear from seeing all of this before me. _What is this place?_

"Now, now, little Winry . . .there's no need to be afraid . . .trust me, this won't hurt a bit . . ." I looked up to see Ed's 'mother' looming over me, that sweet smile vanished from her face and was replaced with an evil grin. _I knew this wasn't her! This is all a trick! Ed! Snap out of it!_ I silently screamed over at Edward who stood in the background, staring down at me like he didn't even know who I was.

"What are you gonna do to me?" I screamed out quickly, my voice suddenly recovered. She only grinned wider and bent down so that her face was closer to mine. She grabbed my chin and forcefully pulled it up so I was staring her straight in the eyes. Just then, I saw the face of another flash across her's and I gasped out loudly.

"But not knowing is all the fun, am I right, little girl?" she asked me, her voice growing colder and colder by each word she was saying. Her eyes switched from brown to purple in a second and she let go of me, dropping me back to the ice-cold floor. She stood back to her feet and walked over to Ed, placing her arms around him and leading him over to where I was lying. She pulled her hand through his long gold hair that was lying all over his shoulders and smirked at me even more evilly than before.

"Besides, you wouldn't want Edward here to think that you can't do anything without him, right? Isn't that what you want him to think? That you don't need to depend on him for everything? But you do, don't you? You can't live three days without him waiting on your every need and—"

"SHUT UP! I KNOW YOU'RE NOT REALLY ED'S MOTHER! THIS IS ALL A TRICK! SNAP OUTTA IT, ED! DON'T LISTEN TO—"

A hard object came in contact with the side of my head and I rolled onto my back, staring up at the ceiling and my head throbbing in pain. The huge face of a creepy, distorted man—no, creature—loomed above me, grinning hungrily down at me. I gasped out again and tried to squirm away from it, but I only hit something behind me. I tilted my head back to see a tall woman with long black hair standing above me, smirking. I tried to move away from her in all of my panic, but she only grabbed my hair and pulled me back to her. I cried out in pain as I got dragged across the floor by my long blonde hair.

"Oh my . . .and where do you think _you're_ going?" she asked me in a silky voice, mocking me with a pout. My eyes began to brim with tears as I stared up at her in fear and noticed how her eyes looked. They were completely solid red except for long black slits in them like cats' eyes. _She can't be human . . .what are these things!_

"EDWARD! PLEASE! LISTEN TO ME! DON'T LISTEN TO ANYTHING THEY'RE SAYING! IT'S ALL LIES! DON'T—"

"Didn't I tell you to be quiet, little one?" the woman asked me roughly and hit me across the head sharply. I rolled over on my side and curled up in a ball and began sobbing. My heart was pounding out of control and I couldn't even feel my mind anymore. I felt like I was in a dream, but the pain was so real. _Ed . . .I know I don't want you to think i'm helpless . . .but please help me . . .I need you . . .have you forgotten about me?_

"Now . . .Edward, darling, remember what I told you? You may begin . . ." Ed's 'mother' directed to him, her voice back to being sweet as honey as she motioned for him to walk over to me. Ed stepped slowly to me, his eyes still fixed directly on me and not blinking at all. I almost backed away from him in fear, but my muscles suddenly refused to move. I stayed frozen as he neared me and slowly kneeled down in front of me, facing me. I stared up at his beautiful face, trying to find some sort of look of understanding or realization. But . . .no . . .he still had nothing on him . . .nothing at all . . .

"Edward . . .what are you . . .?" I began, but stopped when he looked up at the tanks surrounding me, his face still unreadable. _Edward . . .my Edward . . .what's wrong with you . . .?_ His gaze switched back to me and I felt the tears start to rise in my eyes again. I could hear my heart pounding and I'm sure that everyone else in the room could hear it too . . ._Why won't you talk to me . . .?_

"Please . . .snap out of this . . ." I whispered silently as warm tears spilled out of my eyes and ran down my cheeks, landing on my hands bound by my face. My whole body began to shudder involuntarily as the tears continued to roll out of my eyes in a continuous movement like waterfalls. " . . .I'm so scared . . ." I managed to whisper roughly from behind my choking tears. Edward didn't seem to do anything at all to my silent pleas. I wanted him to hold me and tell me everything's all right . . .but he couldn't . . .this isn't him. This is not him at all. _Is this it, then? Is this how it ends? Am I really going to die at the hands of the man I love? Will we never get to experience love like it was supposed to be? Will I never get to see everybody again? Is this how it's going to be?_

"I don't know if you can hear me . . .but I love you . . .I love you so much! I don't want to never see you again! I want to stay with you forever! I love you, Ed! I love you!" I shouted, the tears spilling constantly out of my eyes as I yelled out my secrets that burned a hole in my heart. My whole body shivered with sobs and I closed my eye shut in advance of knowing what was to come next. I heard a loud clap and squeezed my eyes shut tighter. "Is this what we were supposed to become?" I asked him softly; suddenly remembering something that he said a couple of days ago after we were done fighting. I opened my eyes and I thought I saw a slight lift to his dark features for a second, but it was so unnoticeable that I could hardly see a difference. He still held his hands together in preparation for alchemy, but he didn't do anything more to it.

"You said . . .that we have become 'what we were supposed to be' . . .is this what we're supposed to be? Answer me, Edward . . .is this how it's supposed to be?" I continued, staring up at him through blurred vision. I could hardly see his face through my tears, but I knew that I did see his eyes turn back to normal and the lowering of his hands.

"No . . .no . . .it's not . . ." he suddenly whispered, his voice full of confusion and sorrow. I closed my eyes again, but not in fear this time . . .I closed them in happiness and relief. The last of the tears rolled down my cheeks and lay on my already soaked hands. Arms quickly scooped me up, but not forcefully like when I was being carried, but gently and comfortingly. I pressed my face into Ed's warm chest and sobbed silently into his soft black shirt as he held me there in his arms, resting his chin on the top of my head.

"This is all touching and everything, but you two _do_ realize that we're not gonna just let you go, right?" I looked up from Ed and saw a short guy standing in the place where Ed's 'mother' was with spiky, dark hair and light purple eyes. He had his arms folded across his chest and stood in the middle of the tall woman and the fat creature, with a wide smirk on his face. Ed suddenly tore away from me and stood to his feet quickly, almost knocking me over again.

"ENVY!" he hollered furiously at the one in the middle. The one called 'Envy' smirked even more and sniggered slightly.

"That's me."

"YOU BASTARD! YOU DID THIS TO ME!" Ed shouted at the top of his voice to the person in front of him who casually looked at his hand with a smirk. He looked up at Ed and grinned.

"You're too gullible, Elric. Haven't you learned yet that everything really isn't what it seems?" Envy reprimanded him coolly. Ed seethed with anger; his fists clenched to his sides in fury and his golden eyes fixed on Envy in a deep glare. Envy only smiled at him.

"I'M SO SICK OF HEARING YOUR VOICE!" Ed yelled and leapt right at Envy, but the woman on his right suddenly extended her fingers into razors and blocked Ed's path. I stared in horror at those fingers. _What are these things?_

Ed moved away from the finger blockade and back over to me. I gazed up at him, wanting to say something to him, but I found that my mouth was too dry to even say a word. The woman pulled back those fingers and smiled.

"We need the stone. You're going to make that stone for us whether you like it or not," the woman with long black hair stated matter-of-factly. Ed cringed for a moment, then stood his ground, a determined look dawning on his face. Seeing him so serious like this surprised me. I haven't seen that look in his eyes for the longest time. A thought suddenly came across my mind. _Could these be the homunculi Edward was telling me about?_

_"Envy and Lust . . .they broke his seal when you were gone . . .they did it right in front of my eyes . . .I tried to help him . . .but . . .I couldn't . . ._

I gasped out quietly when the memory of us sitting on the couch appeared in my head. My body began to shake all over again, as I lay on the cold floor, still bound. Just thinking about being in the same room as the killers of one of my best friends and Edward's younger brother sent chills up and down my spine. I had heard about these things before . . .but I've never seen them in my life. _Envy . . .and Lust . . .who's that other one, then? _

"I won't give it to you if it means killing somebody!" Ed shouted back, taking a step towards the group of people standing in the shadows. Envy tsked under his breath and smirked once more.

"Elric, Elric, Elric . . .we asked you nicely . . .and now you leave us no other choice . . .we'll have to use force on you."

Ed glanced quickly down at me, and then back up at Envy, Lust and the other person. They didn't do anything at first, much to my relief, but then Lust shot out her fingers and jammed them into a nearby wall. Deep cracks grew up from the puncture and pieces of rock started to crumble down to the floor. I watched uneasily as the cracks grew wider and wider and I could tell from the way Ed was staring at it that he also felt nervous.Envy smirked at both of us.

"We _really_ hate to do this to you two . . .but . . ." Envy said sarcastically as Lust pulled the fingers quickly out of the wall and the whole wall came crashing down in a cloud of smoke and a roar of sound. Ed leaped over to me and ripped off my bindings as quickly as he could as more walls began to topple down around us. As soon as the last rope was off, he pulled me to my feet and took off in a sprint to the door, holding onto my hand. I tripped over piles of stones, but he wouldn't slow down. He reached the door and flung it open, turning down the alley and into the street. Just as we left the building, I turned around slightly to see the whole thing come crashing down and the three figures of the homunculi standing in the midst of the rubble. I didn't have time to observe anything else because Ed was still pulling me along without any mercy. From over by the ruins, I heard Envy's voice echo in the night, finishing his previous sentence:

" . . .we just like to see you run . . ."

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**K-c**


	6. Take Everything

**Written in Blood  
By: K-c **

**A/N: So, as you all could tell, this is when my story's plot really starts to develop. This is only the beginning of the climax, though, so don't think it's all down hill from here. I'm very happy that you guys liked the last one . . .it took me so long to write something so short! I promise that this one will definitely be longer! Enjoy!**

**Another note from K-c: YES! MY PROJECTS ARE FINALLY OVER! I'll be updating more frequently now! HUZZAH!**

**Ch.6: Take Everything**

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"Ed . . .please . . .stop . . ." I panted out heavily, my legs practically giving out underneath me. My chest was heaving uncontrollably; the very breath I tried to draw was painful and difficult to swallow. I could hear the blood pounding in my head as I tried to keep running up to Ed's lightning fast speed. At first, I didn't think that he had heard me, so I opened my mouth again to speak, but I only croaked hoarsely. Ed shot a glance behind us from over his shoulder and slowly stopped running, coming to a clumsy stop. I ran straight into him and he grabbed my waist before I could fall over. I looked up into his face and saw the fear, worry and exhaustion hidden behind his sweaty exterior. His eyes were glinting in a streetlight beside us and I knew that he was just as afraid as I was.

"Where . . .are we . . .going?" I asked him through breaths, resting my hands on my knees to somehow catch the breath I had lost a long time ago. My legs began to wobble once more and I grabbed a hold of something to sustain my balance and I ended up seizing his jacket sleeve. He was doubled over beside me, his pants coming in short and heavy. I could see the sweat drip down off of his face and onto the gravel ground beneath our sore feet. Without looking at me, he said the next sentence quietly, his breath still constricting his words.

"Anywhere but here."

"But how far do we need to go to get away from them?" I shouted slightly, panic rising in my voice. The thought of running to the next town frightened me a bit . . .it was so far away. Ed suddenly looked up at me, his eyes narrowed in anger and frustration.

"As far as we need to, okay?" he yelled, his breath regained for the time being. We were totally disregarding the fact that we were in the middle of a city at night and that everybody was sleeping except for us. When he had shouted this, I thought I saw a light flicker on in a window above us, but I ignored it and glared slightly back at Edward.

"So we're just gonna run away from this?" I screamed back, my voice volume growing higher and higher with every word I said. This only seemed to piss him off even more and I knew what was going to come next: Another argument.

"Of course we're not! I just wanna get away from them!"

"I wanna get away from them, too, but I also want to stop them before they destroy this whole town!"

"THAT'S EASIER SAID THAN DONE!"

"YOU GOT RID OF THEM BEFORE, YOU CAN DO IT AGAIN!"

"I NEVER GOT RID OF THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"I DON'T WANT TO RUN AWAY ANY MORE, LET'S FACE IT!"

He suddenly seized a hold of my shoulders tightly and squeezed them painfully. I gasped out in discomfort, but he did not yield his grip. He glared me straight in the eyes, though he was now completely serious. The way his long bangs fell over those beautiful eyes of his, held my attention and I didn't try to move out of his grasp.

"Do you want to die?"

This little inquiry froze my heart and erased all of my anger in a flash of a second. My lips began to tremble as I tried to find some words to say to get myself out of this horrible situation. The feeling darting between us was more than I could bear . . .it was unnerving how every word he said made me become a babbling fool and made me lose all of my thoughts. I was so scared by his words . . . I could tell in his eyes that he was just as scared as I was. His hands shook slightly as he held me in my place, tightening his grasp on my shoulders to maintain his own grip. Being in a situation like this is hard on both of us . . .I just never stopped to think about how Ed was feeling during this. He always was so unemotional looking, that I couldn't tell if he was afraid or not. Now, seeing him in the eyes in the dim light of night, I could see the fear.

" . . .Are we going to die . . .?" I asked meekly, my voice shaking with each syllable. Ed closed his golden eyes for a moment as if trying to find an answer for himself before saying it aloud, and then looked at me again. The fear shining in his eyes was not as great as before, but it was still staring back at me hauntingly.

"Not it we keep moving, we won't."

"Boo."

We spun around sharply as he let go of my shoulders to see Envy standing right behind us with a gun in his hand. He smiled maniacally at us and pointed the gun directly at Ed, and then moved it slowly to me. I didn't have time to react or think, but the next thing I knew, I was being pulled along again at a much faster pace than before. Edward was running at such a fast speed that I couldn't move my legs in time with him and just dragged along behind him. I looked behind me to see Envy setting fire to a house on his left and Lust crushing a building into rubble again. Screams from the occupants within erupted into the air and shattered the semi-calm atmosphere as their bodies got crushed inside of the collapsing structures. From a burning building, I saw a young woman run out carrying a small child in her arms away from the flames, but Envy pointed the gun and shot her to the ground before she could get far. When she hit the ground, the fat one ran up to them and stooped over their bodies, concealing them from my sight. When he moved away, nothing was on the ground anymore except for a large puddle of blood. I stared in awe at this devastation, words not capable of describing the utter terror before my eyes.

Edward suddenly reared off to the right and flew down a narrow alley, stumbling over trash cans and whatnot, desperately trying to run away from our followers. He flung open a random door and barged inside of the house. Just as I was inside, he slammed the door shut with a loud bang. I tried to stop to catch my breath for a moment, but Ed only pulled me forward again, running through the kitchen of the house to a place of hopeful safety. As we ran by, we passed a middle-aged man with short brown hair and a large stomach.

"What the hell are you two doing in—"

Ed stopped running and wheeled around, rummaging in his pocket for his State Alchemist pocket watch and held it up with haste. "Sir, I am a State Alchemist and I'm taking brief refuge in this house—"

"What's going on out there?" a timid and very frightened woman with long red hair asked us fearfully from around a corner. A small boy of no more than five years old with light brown hair and bright green eyes clung onto her leg frightfully, peeking at us from behind his mothers' skirt. Edward looked over at the two of them, his chest still heaving from all of our running and he still held onto his watch.

"Ma'am, you need to get out of here now. You are all in great danger—"

"From who? Who would do something so horrible as destroy our town and kill everyone?" the woman screeched out in horror, stepping around the corner, her little son trailing behind her, his eyes wide in fear. He looked up at his mother with that same expression, but she did not look down at him. I could tell that Edward was trying to keep his patience, but time was running out and they were just wasting it when they could be running to shelter. It wasn't until he stepped away from me and towards the family that I had noticed that he had been holding my hand that entire time. Usually, he pretending to not know of my existence around others . . .especially when he was being "Mr. State Alchemist".

"JUST GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE WHILE YOU CAN!" he hollered at them in frustration an annoyance, pointing towards the nearest door. The family in front of us didn't have any time to react because during the next second, the far wall crumbled to the ground in a wave of stones and brick and there stood Lust, Envy and the other one. The fat one licked his lips hungrily, blood dripping down from his mouth and he held an arm in his hand. I gasped out quickly, but it only got stifled by a quick tug on my arm again as Ed began to dart away from them. He dashed through the house, blindly making his way around in this unfamiliar building and eventually thrust open a door and threw me inside. I landed on the floor painfully, but I didn't bother to yell at him for doing so. He was too busy conducting alchemy to seal the door shut.

From in the house, we could hear the screams of the family and their footsteps running frantically here and there. Then, three gunshots rang out in the small house and were quickly followed by the soft squishing of flesh. I cringed at all of these horrific sounds, and as Edward backed away from the door and towards me, I could see that fear was plastered on his pale face once more. I slowly stood to my feet and grabbed his arm tightly as he made his way to me; his eyes still focused on the door facing us.

There was a long moment of silence that fell all over the place in which I could only hear my heart pound and the panting breaths coming from both of our bodies. Then, quietly, I heard the subtle sounds of footsteps slowly coming towards the door. They stopped right in front of it and I held my baited breath, trying to stifle my sobs of fear rising out of me. I could feel Ed tense up as we remained completely still, not daring to even take a breath. I cursed my own heart for beating, being completely convinced that they could hear it as clearly as I could.

The footsteps continued to walk by and down the hallway from where they came. I let the trapped air inside of my lungs out slowly, the fear in my heart still there but dying for the time being. Ed slowly moved away from me, pulling his arm out of my tight grasp and walked over to the door to press his ear against it to make sure that whoever was there was gone. I watched him wearily, the thought of them still being there gripping my throat and constricting it severely.

A loud crashing sound emitted suddenly from nowhere and I screamed out as I saw Ed stumbled backwards, a long black spear-like thing stuck in his left arm. I screamed his name and started to run towards him, but the wall with the door collapsed in a heap and Lust and Envy stood in the midst of it, identical smirks on their faces. Lust's extended finger was sticking into Ed's arm and she pulled it out quickly, causing him to fall to the ground in a slump. He clutched his arm protectively as the blood began to run down it, mixing in with the red colour of his coat. The fabric was torn at the upper part and a large, blood-covered wound was visible. I took another step towards Ed to help him, but I stopped dead in my tracks when Envy held up that gun again and pointed it right at my heart. I froze on the spot and didn't dare to move a muscle.

"The game ends here, Elric," Envy growled lowly, still pointing the gun at my heart, but turning to face Edward on the floor. Ed glared up at him, the pain and fury glinting off of his eyes in the soft, dim light coming from the lamp overhead. My heart tore into pieces while I stared helplessly at him, thoughts and ideas constantly running through my mind on how I could possibly save him from being killed by these horrible monsters. I gulped down some excess spit in my mouth even though my throat felt exceedingly dry. Envy's smirk grew wider as I began to shake uncontrollably and he turned to face me.

"Aw . . .what's the matter, little girl? Are you afraid?" he asked me in a sweet voice that was dripping with poison. He pulled his lips together in a mocking pout and began to laugh horribly in my despair. The courage inside of my body that had walked away from me for this whole time showed up and I took a step towards him, clenching my fists.

"You're not going to get away with this!" I shouted at them, glaring at Lust and Envy with all of my might. When an evil grin came upon Envy's face, I lost all of my courage again and I was just a little pile of nothing once more.

"Oh, but I believe we just did," Envy laughed again and held the gun up higher to point at my forehead.

There was another long pause of silence when none of us moved or made a single sound. Outside, I could hear the running footsteps of the military that had been called to attention by the destruction of their town. Voices shouted in the distance and barked out orders, but none of them were near where we were. They sounded so far away and they would never reach us in time. I wanted to scream out that we were here and that we have them right in our grasp, but the gun that was still pointed to my head was preventing my attempts at all cost. I closed my eyes suddenly, fearing the end.

A loud gunshot rang out in the room, but I didn't feel any pain. There were no screams that followed the booming sound. I opened my eyes in confusion and saw Edward on his feet, holding the gun between his two hands. Envy tensed his finger on the trigger to fire, but Ed conducted alchemy and turned it into a gigantic metal club. He grabbed the weapon and swung it and it collided with the side of Envy's head and he fell to the floor.

I looked around the room and saw that Lust and the other one were already on the floor, knocked cold. I wanted to ask him how the hell he did that so quickly, but I didn't have time to because Ed quickly grabbed my hand. I prepared to run again, but he didn't. Instead, he pulled me towards him and embraced me tightly, running his fingers through my hair gently. I froze as he held me against him and pressed his face into my neck.

"Let's get outta here."

That was when we started to run again. Knowing the fact that the homunculi were going to come to at any given moment hurried my feet along so that I was actually running up to speed with Edward. He led us out of the house and back into the street where it was lonely and empty. I still heard the voices from the military echoing in the night, but they were still so far away. Houses around us were still burning, but no screams issued from within. My heart felt stone cold as I stared at the sight surrounding me. _Is everyone dead?_

Edward paused for a moment, staring around him as well and then turned to his left and took off into the woods behind somebody's house. We reached the edge of the woods and he paused for a moment, staring up at the trees, but then plunged straight into the thick blanket of darkness of trees. The soft mud squished underneath my feet as we ran steadily, avoiding trees and other obstacles in our path. Ed's hand gripped mine tightly and I felt so secure being in the same presence as him. The cold air blew against my face and I immediately started to regret not putting on a jacket or something a little less revealing as my tank top and skirt. I was still barefoot because Edward hadn't given me anytime at all to put on some shoes when he was in his trance and dragged me out of the inn. By now, my feet had already started to bleed from being cut on the ground and rocks that I was constantly tripping over. They hurt like hell, but I was too afraid to stop and worry over them. _The homunculi could've waken up by now . . ._

My foot caught a large rock and I was suddenly sent flying forwards and straight into the mud. The wet mud clung onto my face and the whole front half of my body as I lay face-first in the sticky mess. Edward continued to run, but spun around and ran over to me immediately. A horrible pain sprung up from my leg and I screamed out loudly, forgetting for the moment that we were trying to hide from somebody. My right leg felt like it had split in half! The searing pain throbbed up and down my lower half and I continued to scream bloody murder while it did. Ed dropped to his knees beside me and held his hands above me in panic, not sure of what to do.

"Winry! Are you all right?" he asked me frantically, his voice growing high in shear panic and alarm. I sucked in some air through my teeth in pain and frustration and glared up at him.

"LIKE HELL I AM!" I screamed at him, the pain making me furious at everything at the moment. Ed looked taken back by my remark and I half expected for him to argue back with me, but he merely rolled me onto my back as carefully as he could. I cried out again at the movement of my leg and began to pant heavily from the torture running through my body.

"We really need to hurry—"

"HOW CAN I HURRY IF I CAN'T EVEN MOVE?"

"Just calm down, I'll carry you—"

"CARRY ME? YOU'RE TOO SHORT!"

Ed glared at me horribly, his golden eyes glinting in the faraway light from town. I knew I had struck a nerve, but my mind was so consumed by the pain that I didn't have time to worry over what I had said to him. I waited for him to throw himself into a tantrum, but he didn't to my surprise. He closed his eyes for a second as if letting off some steam and then opened them once more.

"I'll carry you."

That was the last thing I heard from him for the longest time. He didn't snap back at me like I was expecting him to, but he kept a calm and cool head, ignoring my insults. He scooped me up quickly, but still being careful, and hoisted me onto his back. He held onto my legs for support and I clung onto his neck. There was a slight discomfort from his hand holding onto my broken and throbbing leg, but I got used to the pain after a while and shut up. He walked quickly, but not quick enough to drop me behind.

_Has Edward really matured? _

I smiled slightly at the ridiculous thought of little Edward, who complained and threw hissy fits everytime somebody called him young or short, being a mature adult. Sure, he and I were 17 years old, but I still couldn't see _that_ large of a change to him. Part of me, I had to admit, didn't want to lose the Edward I've come to know and love. Being the immature brat he always was made me fall for him even more and I didn't want to believe that that part of him was gone forever. _My childhood friend is finally becoming an adult . . .but will he leave me behind? Will he never argue with me out of spite like we used to? I don't want to lose him like this . . . not just yet . . ._

"Winry . . .?" he whispered suddenly, tearing me from my thoughts. _I loved the way he whispered my name so gently, like a breeze through my hair. _I bent down further towards him and buried my face in his long, golden hair that was still down on his shoulders and sighed.

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry . . ." he finished softly, his voice full of remorse. I glanced up from his hair in confusion.

"Why?"

"I almost killed you . . .and now . . ." he paused, his voice breaking off suddenly. I waited in silence for him to continue. When he said the next part, his voice was clogged with sorrow and anger. "And now we're being chased by the things I never wanted you to see in your life!" he shouted quickly, the fury quite noticeable in his voice. I bent down and pressed my face in his neck again. My heart was frozen by his words—like always. _This is why he never wanted to take me along with him to places . . .he didn't want to take the risk of meeting up with the homunculi and getting me hurt. He was only trying to protect me . . .and my stupid stubbornness—it brought me here and this is what happened! Why couldn't I have just let him go?_

"This is all my fault . . ." I whispered suddenly, feeling the tears rise in my eyes as I said this. Edward stopped walking and stood completely still.

"If I had only let you go . . .none of this would have happened! It's all my fault! I never do anything right!" I screamed out, the tears pouring out of my eyes like waterfalls. They landed in his silky hair and ran down his shoulder gently. I squeezed my eyes shut in anguish and sobbed hysterically on his shoulder. He slowly and gently let me down on the ground as I still continued to cry incessantly.

"Don't say that . . .it's not your—"

"YES IT IS! DON'T DENY IT! You know that it's my fault just as well as I do!" I shrieked back at him, the tears still running out of my eyes and landing on the soft dirt underneath me. The tears mixed in with the mud still caked on my face and turned them a dirty brown colour. When I opened my eyes, Edward was kneeling right in front of me, staring me straight in the face. My heart began to pound, but my body was so masked by my sorrow that I didn't even have time to realize that the one boy I loved dearly was with me . . .and was actually caring for me. I was too caught up in my self-pity that I couldn't think about him . . .

"No, Winry. I _don't_ know . . .all I know is that I'm happy you're all right and that we're together now . . ." He whispered gently to me, placing a warm hand on my mud-covered cheek soothingly. I sniffled slightly and blinked away a few stray tears that clung onto my eyelashes. I wanted to open my mouth to argue about how I'm not okay and that I'm in horrible pain, but our faces were so close to each other that I didn't even want to move my lips. My vision was blurry from my tears, but I could see those beautiful gold eyes of his glowing radiantly in the darkness and seemed to conduct their own light. I could almost hear his own heartbeat pounding steadily inside of his chest and mine beat in sync with his in the silence of the night.

_What's going on? Why is he acting so mature suddenly? This is the man that I've been lusting after for the past four years, liked for ten years, and knew for three more . . .and when he starts to return my feelings . . .I'm scared. I can't even move my arms to inch away! What's wrong with me?_ _I love him . . .I know I do . . .but why do I feel so empty and alone? I'm not alone . . .he's with me . . .but this just doesn't feel like him . . .The Edward I've known . . .the Edward I've loved . . .is different now . . ._

"I . . ." I began uncertainly, unsure of exactly what I was going to say. My lips barely moved, but I could still feel the heat from his face lying all over mine. His warm breath played over my cheeks and I started to feel very drowsy. He seemed to creep closer to me if that was possible, his warm hand still resting gently on my cheek and the other one inched around my waist. I sat completely still, the muscles in my body not responding at all to what was going on. His hand from my cheek moved from its' place and he rested a comforting finger on my lips delicately. My body shivered all over from his touch and I felt that strange urging inside of me start to beg to be released once again. I half closed my eyes in preparation for the inevitable and waited patiently, my legs itching like crazy.

Ed slowly moved his hand from my waist to my neck and he accidentally brushed it against my bare thigh. Another long shiver ran up and down my spine and I started to get antsy. I took in a sharp intake of breath and placed my hands on his shoulders involuntarily. I twirled my fingers around in his long hair, letting the silky texture of it soothe my thoughts and needs. Ed took this action as a welcoming gesture, and moved in towards me even more so that our lips were actually brushing against one another. I wanted him so badly, but I couldn't do anything to the effect of it. I wanted him and needed him. I couldn't take the suspenseful moment . . .I just needed him. Suddenly, he moved away.

"Win' . . .this isn't right."

It felt like my heart had stopped as he said these words. I let my hands drop from his shoulders, releasing his beautiful hair in the process. I gaped at him, my throat automatically constricting to the point where I could hardly breathe. The pounding pain in my leg seemed to have numbed away for the second and I was alone once more. As I looked him in the eyes, I saw that his golden irises weren't glowing like they were before, but they seemed to have dulled out, like a candle losing its' wick. He shifted his gaze from me to the ground beside us nervously, trying to cover up his blush. I was speechless.

"I just don't want to hurt you . . ." he whispered calmly, his eyes still focused on the ground. I could barely see his face in the dim and meager light from town, but I could see the sorrow of a million apologies wiped across his complexion. I knew exactly what he meant by his words . . ._He didn't want to love me like he wants to because when he goes away again, it'll only hurt me more . . .He doesn't want to put me through more misery. _As I thought on this, my eyes began to brim with tears and my chest heaved. The tears spilled out again and all over my front, still covered in dark mud.

"Hey . . .don't cry . . ." he whispered over to me, now looking up and seeing my tears. For all of the years I have known Edward, he has always been a sucker for girls crying and this was no different than before. His golden eyes began to fill up with seas of concern and compassion as he gazed over at me. I couldn't stop crying. I felt like all of the oceans in this world didn't equal to the amount of tears I needed to shed. Everything was so horrible . . .Edward and I are more distant and awkward around each other, we're being hunted down by monsters, my leg is broken and I still want him, but he won't take me!

"I won't let them hurt you."

I looked up from my lap to see Edward wrapping his arms around me and resting his chin on top of mine. I buried my face into his chest and sobbed out the last few tears softly, holding onto him as if my life depended on it.

"But . . .what's going to happen tomorrow?" I asked him quietly through my tears; my face still smothered in his jacket collar. There was a long pause of silence as I listened to the sound of his breath and felt his chest rise up and down steadily.

"Nobody knows . . .but whatever happens, happens . . ." he answered sternly, his business-like tone appearing again. His seriousness startled me, but he was completely right. _Whatever happens, happens . . .we'll just play it by ear and hope for the best . . ._

I pulled my face out of his chest and released his slowly. Edward followed suit and sat there, staring at me. I gave a weak smile and brushed off a long strand of hair from his shoulder.

"Turn around."

Ed took my order nicely and turned around like he was told. I smiled again and reached back into my pocket for another hair-tie (I kept a whole stash of them!) and began to play around with his hair. I entwined my fingers with the silky locks and parted it into three parts, preparing for braiding. I slowly and meticulously braided it carefully, making sure to not miss any strands that might poke out. Judging by the way his shoulders slumped slightly halfway through this process, he was starting to doze. When I had finished, I leaned over to look at his face and saw that his eyes were indeed closed. My heart warmed at the sight of the sleeping beauty and the thought of being chased and hiding in the woods with a broken leg vanished immediately from my mind for the moment as I stared at him.

I somehow snuggled my body into the grasp of his arms and he automatically pulled me towards him in his sleep. I rested my head against his shoulder and stared up at his gorgeous face with content. Feeling the heat radiate from his body calmed my nerves and soothed the pain in my leg for the time being. The worries of what was coming in the morning didn't seem to matter anymore and I smiled happily, closing my eyes for much needed sleep. I thought I heard him whisper something to me gently in the quiet of the night, but I didn't get the chance to understand what it was that he had said because I was soon lulled off to sleep.

* * *

Ed's POV:

_"It'll only be for a little while . . ."_

I grudgingly opened my eyes from sleep, expecting the blinding light from dawn, but I was only greeted with darkness. _The night's not over yet . . .I have more hours to sleep . . ._ I opened my eyes wider and looked down, expecting to see Winry resting on my chest, but she wasn't there. I tried to put my arms down to crawl around to look for her, but I couldn't move them from above my head. My vision was still blurry, but the image of cement floor became clearer and clearer as the seconds ticked by. The loud rattling of chains brought me to my senses and I snapped awake.

_Where the hell am I?_ I looked around the room I was in and noticed that I was in some sort of cell with bars all around me. As I glanced above me, I saw that my wrists were bound in chains above my head on the wall. The room I was in was dark and dank, no windows in it at all and not a soul around. My heart began to pound as panic rose up inside of my body at the thought of being bound in this prison-like place. I opened my mouth to scream something, but something large was lodged down my throat, preventing my shouts to be heard. I choked on this and began to cough violently, but only made my head pound from lack of oxygen. I kept looking around frantically for any site of Winry, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Did you sleep well?" a quiet voice sounded from over in the corner of the room. I directed my attention to where I heard the voice and saw the dark silhouette of Lust standing in the corner, leaning up against the wall casually. Anger boiled up inside of me and I started to shout something again, but it only threw me into another coughing fit by my gag. She merely smirked at me and twirled around a ring of keys tauntingly.

"Long time no see . . ."

* * *

**K-c**


End file.
